Your Turn Part 2
by Artemius
Summary: The Master is back to cause more trouble for Rose and Lissa.
1. Chapter 1

ROSE POV

"I don't need healed, Liss," I grumbled. I jerked my shoulder out from under her arm, then swore softly as it jarred against the back of my seat.

"Stop sulking, Rose. It took three of them to take you down. You're still a badass." I stubbornly refused to look at her, but I could still tell that she was smiling indulgently at me.

I wasn't sulking, damn it. I was proud of the novices that had finally managed to wrestle me to the ground and "stake" me. That was the whole point. At least, that's what I kept telling myself. When Lissa had decided to make a queenly visit to St. Vladamir's I had thought that it would be fun to tag along and help out with the end of year field experience for the seniors. I was seriously re-evaluating my idea of fun.

It wasn't just being beaten either, although that did sting a little. Being back at St. Vlad's had been harder than I expected. I may have had two loving parents now, but that didn't change the fact that my old school practically raised me. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I was back.

Not to mention how much I missed Lissa. Which was a ridiculous thing to think, since we were together practically every waking moment. But she was the queen now, which meant she had a ton of duties all the time. And I had to be constantly alert around her, watching for attacks. Even being inside the wards didn't really help, what with how many Moroi didn't like her reforms and would love to see her off the throne. But we had both felt safe enough at St. Vlad's to let our guard down some. Hanging out in guest housing with her had almost been like being in our old dorms again. And I suddenly realized how much I missed my best friend.

We were flying back to Court now, and I didn't want to end our trip fighting. "I'm sorry, Liss. I guess getting kicked puts me in a bad mood." It had been a perfectly executed attack that left me flat on my back and dead, according to the field experience rules. My appreciation of it was only slightly dimmed by the throbbing bruise already forming on my shoulder.

"I understand, Rose." I got the feeling that she understood more than just my excuse. If I thought it was hard to deal with the new pressures we were under, I could only imagine how she felt. "I just wish you would let me help."

"It's really not that bad. It hurts, but I'll be fine in a day or two." Or a week, but there was no reason to tell her that. "You're supposed to be cutting back on spirit."

"It would just take a little bit." I'd gotten used to hearing such things from her. She'd been putting in a lot of work on the anti-Strigoi vaccine lately, and even though I no longer read her mind, I could still tell the darkness was starting to get to her. Unfortunately, the more she used spirit, the harder it was for her to stop.

"Sure, you offer to heal this bruise," I joked, trying to lighten the subject. "Where were you when my mother gave me a black eye right before Christmas?"

"I think I was-" we all felt the plane start to dip unexpectedly. I came to my feet, going on high alert like the rest of the guardians travelling with us. "What's going on?" Lissa asked.

"I don't know," I told her. "But I'm going to find out."

I stumbled up towards the cockpit as the plane dipped a little more. Bracing myself against the bulkhead, I threw open the door and lurched inside. The pilot and copilot were in the middle of an intense discussion. I thought I followed the basics, but I wasn't really sure.

"We aren't supposed to be landing until we get to Court," I told them, like maybe they had just forgotten our destination.

"It'll just be a quick stop," the pilot assured me. "We need to fuel up."

I frowned at him. "We've made much longer trips than this without stopping."

"And we should have been able to make this one." He slanted a look over at his copilot.

"I told you, the tank was filled at the school. I supervised it myself."

"Well it's not full now. It could just be that the gauge isn't working." He reached out and rammed it with the heel of his hand. I didn't really think that would accomplish anything, but I understood his feelings.

"And if the gauge is working?" I asked.

The pilot shot me a meaningful look over his shoulder. "Then we have a leak in the tank."

"Sabotage?" I already knew the answer.

"It has to be. We'll know soon after we land. Even if it is, we won't be delayed by much. It won't take long for another plane to get here from Court."

I didn't like it. I left the cockpit to confer with the other guardians. I went straight to Nathan. He and I had a pretty rocky relationship. He was technically in charge of the queen's guardians, but I sort of operated on my own agenda. His name didn't help matters any, even though I knew it wasn't his fault that just looking at him made me remember my time in Russia with the Strigoi. I thought he needed to loosen up and he thought I needed to learn to respect proper guardian procedure. Despite our differences we were completely united in our common goal: to keep Lissa safe.

"We need to stop and refuel," I told him in a low voice. "But there's a chance the plane's been sabotaged. We may need to wait for a replacement."

He instantly came to the same conclusion I had. "Someone is forcing the queen to ground outside the wards. It's most likely a trap."

"Flying to Court is safer than driving. But do we wait for another plane?" I think he appreciated me deferring to him for a change. Really though, I just didn't know which option was better.

"I don't like sitting there waiting for someone to come at me. As soon as we land, we load into cars and leave." I was surprised to find myself in complete agreement with Nathan. There was just one problem.

"We don't have any cars waiting for us," I pointed out.

"Then we steal them," he told me as he turned away to speak with the other guardians.

Huh. I could maybe actually learn to like this guy. Leaving him to brief the others, I went back to Lissa. She was looking at me with wide eyes, but there was complete trust in them. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Little problem with the plane," I told her, hoping she'd assume I meant something routine and mechanical. "We're going to have to land. Nathan doesn't like leaving you at some random airport, so we're going to drive back to Court instead of waiting for another plane."

"We'll have to wait for cars too," she said before looking at my face closer. "We're just taking them. Rose, what is going on?"

I should have known better than to try lying to Lissa. She'd never needed a bond to read me. I twined my fingers with hers. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

She squeezed my hand. "I know."

She had such absolute faith in me. People always talked about what a dedicated guardian I was. But when someone so easily set their life in my hands, was it any wonder that I felt driven to do everything in my power to be worthy of that trust? We sat in silence until the runway came into view. I stood up to go over the final details with Nathan. "Show time," I told Lissa.

I made my way down the aisle to Nathan. "So what's the plan?" I asked.

"We don't know what we're getting into down there," he answered, "and we're not staying around to find out. We get three cars. The queen goes in the middle one. I'll be driving it, you ride in the back with her. Tess and Frank ride with us."

I nodded in approval, not that he was waiting for me to give him permission or anything like that. But it was a good plan. Straightforward, simple, nothing to it. Impossible to mess up. Hah. I really should have known better.

We all grabbed our bags and lined up at the door. I grabbed Lissa's arm to steady her as the landing jostled all of us. She shot me a nervous smile. "We're going to be fine," I promised her.

The plane came to a stop and the doors opened. Mike and Jake were out the door first. After a quick sweep, they led the charge to the parking lot. It was 2 in the morning, which was both good and bad. On the one hand, it meant that we could get attacked by Strigoi. On the other hand, at least there were no humans around to watch us steal their cars.

I felt a little bad about that. I'd stolen more than my fair share of cars over the past few years. Always for a good cause, but I don't think the airport employees would appreciate our crisis when they got off shift to find their cars missing.

I paused a minute and closed my eyes, focusing on how I felt. No nausea. Lissa stopped with me and was watching expectantly when I opened my eyes. "We're clear," I told her.

"Your Highness!" Nathan called. He had run on ahead and was holding open the door of a Toyota sedan. Ugh. Did we always have to pick the most boring car to take? Lissa whirled to go to him and her backpack slid off her shoulder. The zipper split and a few books tumbled out.

"I can't believe you brought homework," I teased her.

"Vasalisa!" Ooh, Nathan was using her name. He was getting seriously impatient.

"Go," I told her. "I got this."

She sprinted off and slid into the backseat. Nathan closed the door behind her, dove into the driver's seat and took off. So much for me riding with her. I'd just have to hop in with Diane and Steve. I shoved Lissa's books back into the pack and swung it up onto my shoulder. Except I'd forgotten about getting kicked and had picked the wrong shoulder. I gasped in pain and went down on one knee as my bruise started throbbing again.

I looked up at the sound of tires squealing to see the back of the Subaru that Diane and Steve had taken. "Thanks, guys," I muttered. "So much for no dhampir left behind." I guess I was going to have to drive myself. I carefully hitched Lissa's bag onto my good shoulder and jogged into the lot. And then I saw it.

Even in the dark it glowed. I swear it was calling my name. It was a lime green classic Porsche. I'd never understood Sydney's fascination with cars until that moment. In one instant, I became a believer. I couldn't hold back a crazy laugh as I peeled out onto the highway. _This_ was a car.

It took me approximately thirty seconds to catch up with our convoy. They were rolling along pretty quick, but I still had to slow down to fall in behind them. Almost immediately my phone started ringing. Lissa's name showed on the display and I answered with a laugh. "How cool is this?"

"Hathaway," Nathan barked, "what the hell are you driving?"

"A Porsche!" I told him. "It's amazing."

"Did you miss what I said about remaining nondescript?" he demanded.

"Yeah, I did, actually, since I wasn't supposed to be taking a car. I should have been riding with you," I reminded him.

"The queen was in danger," he snapped. "If you can't keep up, you get left behind."

"If I wasn't holding this baby back, you'd be the one left behind," I said.

"We're going to have a long talk once we get back to Court," he warned me.

"Yeah, yeah," I waved him off. "Pull over so Liss can hop in with me."

"Not a chance," he shot me down immediately.

"Killjoy." I took a kind of vicious glee from hanging up on him. Not the smartest move, but I was already in trouble. And really, for me, this was a pretty minor infraction. And totally worth it. It would have been nice if Lissa could have switched cars, but even solo it was a sweet ride. I tossed my phone into the passenger seat and enjoyed the feeling of cruising down the open road.

After several hours much of the thrill had faded. I was ready to be home. We were getting close, and I was starting to think that the trouble with the plane really had been an accident. Diane and Steve left their position in front of me to take off down the road. I wasn't sure what that was about, but I assumed that Nathan had sent them ahead to scout out the road. If someone had laid a trap for us, this would be their last chance to spring it before we were safely behind the wards.

They hadn't been gone long when Mike and Jake suddenly accelerated out of sight. At the same time my phone went off. I grabbed for it. "Is everything okay?"

"There's a tree down across the road," Nathan told me. "Steve thinks they can pull it aside enough for us to get through. It could have just been the wind or something."

"Yeah, and the plane could just be a mechanical failure." His ringing silence was all the agreement I needed. "Don't stop for anything," I told him.

"Not even for God himself," Nathan assured me.

A little blasphemous considering the precarious situation we were in, but I agreed with the sentiment. We slowed down to round a bend and found the rest of our team at work clearing the road. They hadn't gotten the trunk of the tree moved by much, but Nathan managed to squeeze past by dropping down into the ditch along the shoulder. I followed, wincing as the Porsche scraped against some loose branches.

I thought about stopping to help the others, but decided it would be better if I stuck with Lissa. Besides, I wasn't really in the best tree-moving shape. My shoulder still ached, and I was so hungry I was starting to feel sick. Suddenly I realized that there was something horribly familiar about the feeling in my stomach, and it wasn't hunger pangs.

"Strigoi!" I yelled into the phone. "Gun it, Nathan!"

He took my advice, his wheels spinning before finally catching on the pavement and taking off. I hesitated, loathe to leave the rest of our team to face them alone. Suddenly vampires were coming out of the trees on both sides of us.

"Do not harm the queen!" a voice called out. "She is the Master's!"

Shit. Not this guy again. I'd barely survived my last encounter with his thugs. "Get out of here," Diane told me. "Get her back to Court."

I didn't let myself think about what I was leaving them to. I took off. Once again I had to slow down when I caught Nathan, but not by much this time. We careened down the road, taking turns wildly and veering across both lanes. I checked my mirror often, but there was no sign of pursuit behind us. I relaxed slightly as the sickness in my stomach faded.

As we came up on an intersection, I noticed a car sitting on the side road. At first I was just afraid that Nathan was going to cause an accident with his wild driving. Then the nausea hit me again. The waiting car lurched into motion, heading right for Lissa. It was fast, but the Porsche was faster. I revved it high and shot forward, slamming into the left fender and sending it spiraling off course. An explosion of steam poured out from under my crinkled up hood. Through it, I could make out Nathan swerving around the accident. The last I saw of them was their taillights disappearing around a curve in the road.

I lurched out of the Porsche, my stake in hand. Five Strigoi poured out of the car that had hit me. Big Strigoi. It was kind of like watching a clown car empty. Except there was nothing at all funny about this situation. I whirled into action immediately, driving my stake into the nearest Strigoi's chest. My strike lacked its usual force, what with my shoulder being injured, but it still found its target.

Three of the Strigoi approached me more cautiously, unwilling to share the first one's fate. The fourth one hung back, watching the action. I didn't manage any more killing blows, but I successfully fended my three attackers off. I had to keep backing up to keep them from surrounding me. I circled away from the cars. They would have protected my back, but I didn't want to get cornered anywhere.

With all my backpedaling, I lost track of the fourth Strigoi. One of the ones facing me lunged forward and I took another step back. Except there was no where for me to go because the fourth one was right behind me. His hand came down on my bad shoulder, squeezing painfully and making me drop my stake. Before I could think of what to do next, I felt his teeth slice into my neck. There was agony. Then there was bliss. Then there was nothing.


	2. Chapter 2

**This chapter wasn't supposed to go up until tomorrow, but I was powerless against your reviews. Seriously, you guys are great. Cheers!  
**

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LISSA's POV

"Nathan, stop!" None of the three guardians in the car with me were paying any attention to my queenly commands. "We have to go back," I insisted. "We have to help!"

"With all due respect, Your Highness," Nathan told me, "we don't."

I turned to Tess on my left. "We can't leave them there," I begged.

She shared a sympathetic look with me. "Your safety is our top priority," she reminded me gently.

I knew it killed her and the two men in the car to run away from a fight. But that was what their training told them to do in a situation like this: leave their fellow dhampirs to fend for themselves and get the Moroi to safety. I mustered up a small smile for her and decided not to give my protectors a hard time about doing their job. And then I felt it.

I couldn't say what, exactly. Maybe it was a tiny thread of our bond still working. Maybe it was a sixth sense honed over a lifetime of friendship. Maybe it was some undiscovered ability of spirit. I didn't know, but what I did know was that Rose needed help.

"Rose!" I screamed her name and lunged for the door handle. Since I was sitting in the middle, that meant I had to go over Tess. She was so surprised I actually managed to get the door unlatched. But then Frank was jerking me back and Tess was locking the door.

"No!" I fought them with everything I had. Against two trained guardians, it wasn't nearly enough. "Stop the car! She's in trouble!" Unthinking panic swept over me and the only thought in my mind was to get to Rose. Suddenly I realized I had better methods of fighting. "Turn around," I commanded in a calm voice.

"Don't make eye contact with her," Nathan snapped. He kept his eyes firmly glued to the road. "She's trying to compel us."

If I had been able to look both Tess and Frank in the eye at the same time, I think I would have gotten through to them. But I had to turn away from one to look at the other, and I couldn't control them both. Especially not with Nathan fully aware of what I was doing.

He sped down the road, which was quickly becoming familiar. The gates to Court were just a few miles away. We'd been so close. I twisted around to watch out the back window. There was no sign of pursuit. No sign of Rose either.

"Lissa," Tess spoke carefully as she laid a hand on my shoulder, "we don't know yet that anything happened to them. It's almost dawn. As soon as the sun's up we'll go back and look."

"It doesn't matter," I told her. "It's too late."

Dimitri and Christian were waiting for the car at the entrance to Court. Nathan had called to let them know that we were forced to land and drive the rest of the way home, but there had been no time to contact them about the attack. As far as they knew, we'd had a quiet trip back. One look at my face let them know better.

"Are you alright?" Christian demanded, pulling me close.

I nodded and leaned into his chest, but it was Dimitri I was looking at. He scanned the car quickly and then looked at me, his face grave. All I could do was shake my head. The blood drained out of his face as he whirled back the way we had come. "Roza." he whispered.

"The queen is over reacting," Nathan said, giving me an apologetic look while clapping Dimitri on the shoulder. "Rose sprang a trap so that we could get through. That's all we know. She may be fine."

Dimitri didn't acknowledge him. He stood staring down the road, leaning slightly towards the gates as though he were being pulled out towards Rose. I imagined it was taking every fiber of his being to stop from running out there and looking for her. The only thing keeping me in place was knowing that if I took one step I'd have every guardian within 20 feet pinning me down.

"Your Highness," Nathan turned me towards the rest of Court, "we should go inside."

"No," I shook him off, "not until we hear from the others."

He stood there helplessly for a minute and then turned to Tess and Frank. "Assemble a team," he told them quietly. "As soon as it's light, we'll go back out."

They nodded and started for the guardian headquarters. The rest of us stayed frozen, paralyzed until we got news of what had happened. It seemed like years passed before anything changed. The sky was gradually lightening in the east, not enough for us to leave yet, but definitely a sign that the sun was coming. Then we heard a car approaching.

My heart leaped painfully in my chest. Of course Rose was fine. What had I been thinking? She'd come through much worse situations than this. She was invincible. I'd just convinced myself that everything was going to be okay when the car rounded the final bend. It wasn't the Porsche. It was the Subaru that Diane and Steve had taken. But that was okay. Rose had crashed the Porsche to get me home. Obviously she'd just hitched a ride back with the other guardians.

The car came to a stop and Mike got out of the driver's seat. "Jake's in bad shape," he announced, rushing to the backseat.

Diane's door opened slower and she climbed out painfully, her left side covered in blood and her arm hanging awkwardly. I glanced in the backseat and saw Jake leaning back with his eyes closed. The only color in his face was a bloody smear down his cheek. Steve was sitting beside him slumped over.

Nathan ran around the car to check on him, but when he opened the door Steve spilled out bonelessly. I stared at his body without taking it in at first. Why wasn't he moving? Why wasn't anyone checking his vital signs and whispering encouragement like they were with Jake? All at once it hit me. He was dead. Had died in a trap that was meant for me.

"Your Highness," Mike was asking me for something, but I couldn't figure out what. I was too busy trying to find Rose. She wasn't in the car. Why not? Even if the worst had happened, they'd still brought Steve back. So why not her?

"Where's Rose?" I finally asked, my voice sounding strange to my own ears.

"We don't know," Diane told me.

I turned to her, puzzled. "What do you mean? She was there, with you. Where is she now?"

"Steve was dead and Jake was down," Diane said. "Mike and I were back to back, but we knew we weren't going to last much longer. And then the Strigoi just left. I think they needed time to get to their cover before the sun got too high. Mike and I got out of there with the other two. Down the road we found Rose's car. There was a dead Strigoi there too. But that was it. No sign of her."

"No," Dimitri choked out, "she had to have been there. You just didn't see her."

Diane shrugged. "Maybe. We didn't stay long."

"Tess and Frank are gathering a team," Nathan told them. "We'll head out as soon as they get back."

I wanted to go right now. Diane said that the Strigoi had left. There was no reason to wait. But my urgency was buried under a thick layer of dread. I knew it didn't matter if we left right now or in a few hours. Rose was already gone.

"Your Highness," Mike pulled me out of my thoughts. "Jake, please."

I stared at him for a minute before realizing what he was asking. I could heal his partner. As I got closer, I saw how extensive the damage was. His left leg was pared open down to the bone and the back of his head was one bloody mess. His breathing was shallow and sporadic. I reached out and laid my hand on him automatically, not really feeling anything.

And then I felt everything. I felt the grass under my feet and the stars fading out of the sky. The life of the people around me slammed into me, so full of fear and anger and pain. So much pain, pouring out of Dimitri especially, though they all felt it. And Jake, under my hands, with a different kind of pain. And here, finally, was something I could do. Something I could fix.

I released spirit into him, revelling in that tidal wave of power as it swept through me. He didn't immediately sit up and start talking, but his wounds faded and his color improved. His breathing evened out and Mike's did as well, his relief coursing through me as powerfully as spirit had.

Still brimming with magic, I turned to Diane. Why should she suffer for protecting me? It was my duty to repair the damage that had been done to her because of me. Before she realized what I was doing, I touched her arm, directing my healing magic into her.

She stiffened and then blew out a breath noisily, rotating her shoulder experimentally. "Thank you, Your Highness," she told me.

I barely heard her, my head still buzzing with power. I'd been so carefully limiting myself on using spirit lately, I couldn't resist filling myself up with it. It was like diving into a cool, clear lake after days in a desert. I drew in as much as I could, desperate for more, convinced that I would never get enough.

"Lissa," Christian stepped in front of me, his eyes full of concern. "That's enough, Lissa. You can let it go now."

Enough? No, it wasn't. It never would be. I had healed Jake and Diane, but that wouldn't bring Rose back. It wouldn't bring Steve back. And then I realized that I could. There was no reason for him to be dead. And Rose and I weren't bonded anymore, so I wouldn't even have to worry about ending up like Avery. I stepped around Christian and bent over Steve.

"No!" Christian grabbed my arm and jerked me around. "You can't bring him back, Lissa. You have to let go of spirit. You've already used too much."

His blue eyes were piercing into me. I focused on that, on him. Part of me knew that he was right. I couldn't do this, I had to resist spirit in order to be the queen that everybody needed me to be. But it was so hard. I don't think anyone but another spirit user could ever understand how hard it was to let go of all that power. I teetered on the brink for a moment, unsure if I was going to regain control or not.

Then spirit left me. Once I managed to loosen my hold on it a little, it all disappeared in a wave. The world instantly became dimmer. Colors were faded, details blurred. If I could have, I might have grabbed spirit back just to regain that perfect clarity of a moment ago. But I felt weak and dizzy, my head spinning. I stumbled and Christian caught me.

"There you are," his voice was relieved. "That's better. Come on, we've got to get you to the feeders."

I went without protesting. I'd already known that Nathan was never going to let me join the party going back to look for Rose. There was no point in it anyways. I knew that there was nothing there for them to find.


	3. Chapter 3

ROSE's POV

I felt weird when I woke up. It took me a minute to figure out why. I tried to think back to the last thing I remembered. I got a brief flash of Lissa's taillights disappearing around the bend while I fought off a pack of Strigoi. I wondered if she'd made it back to Court.

And that's when it hit me. That's what was weird. I was just kind of mildly curious about what had happened to Lissa. No panic, no overwhelming desire to rush to her side and make sure she was okay. Just sort of wondering what had happened.

I started to sit up carefully, expecting to be bruised and sore from my fight. But as I moved I realized that nothing hurt. Not even a little. I bounded across the room to a mirror. Even seeing the pale skin and red eyes, it still took me a minute to realize that I was Strigoi. Huh. I bared my teeth to study my new fangs. They felt a little weird in my mouth. I guess newly awakened Moroi didn't have that problem.

I could kind of remember how much I hated the thought of being turned, back when I was a dhampir. It was a little like trying to remember a dream. I knew my old self would consider my new self a monster, but I wasn't disgusted. I wasn't scared or sad either. Instead I was...irritated, I realized. I had lost. I understood now the huge favor that Dimitri had tried to do me by giving me the time to be awakened voluntarily. It was insulting to have been overpowered and forced into this new form.

I waited for that pang of longing for Dimitri to hit me, but it didn't come. I knew that he'd be devastated when he heard the news, but I just didn't care. He'd probably come try to put me out of my misery. I'd have to kill him. I didn't look forward to that fight, but I wasn't dreading it either. It was more like an unpleasant chore that I knew I'd have to do sooner or later.

My thoughts were interrupted by the door opening and a Strigoi entering. I recognized him as the one who had awakened me. "Ah, good, you're up." He smiled at me, a cold smile without a trace of warmth in it. It matched his dead eyes. "How are you feeling?"

I considered his question for a minute. "Hungry," I decided.

His smile widened. "Then you'll like what I brought you." With a wave of his hand he brought another Strigoi into the room who was leading a human.

My eyes instantly fastened on the human's neck. I could smell the blood in his veins. If I'd thought I was hungry before, it was nothing compared to the raging thirst that burned in me now. I barely even heard the Strigoi chuckling as I dove across the room and buried my fangs in the human's neck.

The most wonderful taste I'd ever known exploded onto my tongue. I gulped his blood down greedily. After a few minutes, the second Strigoi tried to pull me back, but the first one stopped him. "Let her enjoy herself," he said. "We can always find more humans."

And I did enjoy myself. I drained that human dry, tilting my head back to savor the last few drops of his blood rolling down my throat. With a long sigh of satisfaction I looked back to the first Strigoi. "Who are you?" I asked.

He was smiling proudly at me. "Oh, you are magnificent. You can call me Master."

Okay, that was going to get old real fast. I cocked my head as I studied my "master." He was taller than me, and slender, obviously a Moroi before his awakening. I was used to being stronger than any Moroi, but that didn't count for anything now. He was old, very old, and I knew he could tear me apart without even trying. But that wouldn't last forever. Someday I'd be ready to challenge him. For now, I could play along.

"So what now, Master?"

"Now we awaken the queen. She's just lost her most valuable protector."

Despite the huge amount of blood I'd just drank, the thought made me feel hungry again. "I want to do it," I said.

He chuckled. "Maybe. If you've learned some control by then." He indicated the body at our feet.

The other Strigoi stirred impatiently. "She's brand new," he grumbled.

"You're right, Derek," Master agreed, "she has not yet earned that privilege. We'll see who's worthy. In two weeks we take the queen. Whoever has the most kills between now and then gets the honor of awakening her."

I grinned at the prospect. "Perfect," I breathed.

"Two weeks is awfully soon," Derek worried. "The queen will have extra protection after this last attack."

"Twice we've tried and twice we've failed," Master said. "Because of her." He pointed at me. "But now that she's on our side, we're guaranteed to win."

"It's still not going to be that easy," Derek protested. "She's a good fighter, but not good enough to make that much of a difference."

"Yes I am," I told him. "Besides, it's not just about how I fight, it's what I know. I know Lissa and her guardians. I know their plans. I know their backup plans. I know their emergency plans for when their backup plans fail. They can't stay ahead of me for long."

In fact, as I thought about killing my best friend, I was almost disappointed how easy it would be. Poor Lissa didn't stand a chance.


	4. Chapter 4

LISSA's POV

"Your Highness, there have been more Strigoi attacks in the last week than we usually see in an entire month. Something has to be done!" Prince Badica demanded.

"And what do you suggest?" I asked. As soon as the words were out of my mouth I regretted them. I knew exactly what the council wanted.

"We need more guardians. If the dhampirs won't do their job voluntarily-"

"If you dare suggest that we send unwilling fighters out be our shield against the Strigoi I swear that you will be the first one in line," I threatened. A hush fell over the council as they turned to gape at me. I heard someone whisper something about spirit.

Was I unstable? Undoubtedly. Was spirit to blame? That was a trickier question. It certainly wasn't helping matters, but it wasn't the root of the problem. That was Rose and her continued absence. As I predicted, there had been no sign of her when the guardians went back to the scene of her crash. The idea that she might be dead was almost unbearably painful. The only other alternative was absolutely unthinkable.

Princess Selzkey was eyeing me with concern. "Perhaps we should adjourn for the day," she suggested. "I think we could all use a break."

"Very well," I agreed, "but my mind will remain unchanged on this matter." With a final glare at Prince Badica, I swept out of the room.

I went straight to my room where I could lock myself in and be alone for a while. Not completely, of course. There were still guardians stationed outside my door, but I would take it. This was as close to solitude as I got these days. After having Rose inside my head for years, it was enough for me. Strange to think that I would actually miss that bond. I could never really tell if Rose was watching me or not, but over time I did develop a sense of it. Sometimes it was annoying. Often it was reassuring to know that I wasn't completely alone. I searched through my brain for that feeling again. I'd done it almost continuously in the weeks immediately after our bond broke. I'd gotten out of the habit after a while but caught myself doing it often since her disappearance. It didn't matter how hard I searched my mind, though. Rose wasn't there. As far as I knew, she wasn't anywhere.

I had fallen into a half doze when my bedroom door opened. I sat up with a bright grin on my face. Only two people were allowed to come in here without knocking. Christian was standing in the doorway. Of course it was him. For the first time ever I was disappointed to see my boyfriend. I suppose now there was only one person allowed to enter my room without asking for permission.

"Lissa." He said my name quietly, watching me with concern. "Dimitri's back."

I was out of my bed in a flash. Dimitri had disappeared the day after Rose had. We'd all known that he had gone looking for her. It was kind of frowned upon for guardians to leave their post for personal quests, but with Christian living at Court it wasn't like he needed his guardian on hand constantly. And I understood his need to go after her. Honestly, I was jealous that I hadn't been able to go with him.

Christian caught me before I could bound out of the room. "Lissa, you need to be prepared. His news is...not good."

I pushed past him out to my sitting room. Dimitri was pacing back and forth in his long duster. He must have come straight here when he got back. Nathan was firing questions at him and getting no answers, which was obviously frustrating him. Also in the room was Abe Mazur, I saw with a start. Dimitri must have gone to him for help with his search. It was a smart move. Abe had resources that the rest of us could only guess at and I knew that there was nothing he wouldn't do to find his daughter.

"Is she alive?" Those weren't supposed to be the first words out of my mouth. I meant to comfort Dimitri, to welcome Abe, to remember that I wasn't the only person who loved Rose. But only one thing mattered right now, and social niceties would have to wait.

Dimitri stopped pacing to face me and took a long time to answer my question. "Not exactly," he finally said.

"No," I shook my head vehemently, stepping away from Christian when he tried to wrap his arms around me.

"There's been a dramatic increase in Strigoi attacks in the past week," Abe said.

"I know!" I snapped at him. "Why does everyone keep telling me that like I don't realize it? Rose was the first victim of this wave of attacks. Believe me, I know about them."

"Rose isn't a victim any longer," Dimitri told me gently. "She's the one behind these new attacks."

"That can't be true." The thought was so strong in my head that it took me a minute to realize that I wasn't the one who had spoken. Surprisingly, the protest came from Christian. "She's newly turned," he continued. "No way she could pull off something like this."

"She's always been remarkable," Dimitri commented with a sad smile.

"It's unlikely she's directly responsible for all of them," Abe corrected, "but there's no doubt that she is playing a major role."

"How do you know?" I asked.

"We have proof," is all Dimitri told me.

"What proof? I want to see it!" I demanded.

Abe hesitated and then pulled a laptop out of his bag. With a few taps of his fingers, he brought up a video. "We found this on a surveillance camera in Cleveland," he said.

I recognized Rose instantly, even with the poor video quality. She moved unnaturally quickly, but I told myself that it just looked that way compared to the humans she was fighting. "Maybe they're not innocent victims," I whispered. "Maybe they're criminals or..." my voice trailed off as the video continued. Because there was no explaining the way she pulled a woman's head to the side and bit her neck.

"Okay, so Rose is Strigoi." I was proud of how calmly I said it, not like my entire world was collapsing. My best friend was a monster. My unstoppable guardian was now my biggest threat. But I was still queen, and I would not run back into my room and pull the covers over my head, no matter how badly I wanted to. "We need a plan to restore her."

"Your Highness," Nathan protested, "what we need to do is mobilize a strike team."

"To kill her, you mean?" I asked, shocked.

To his credit, he did look troubled, but he didn't waver. "She's too dangerous. You can't be anywhere near her."

"We can use a different spirit user," Dimitri suggested, but I could tell that he didn't like the idea. It went against a lifetime of training for him to put a Moroi in danger. But his love for Rose was too strong for him to give up on her that easily.

"No, I'm going to be the one to do it," I insisted. Maybe part of me was being selfish. I remembered Dimitri's devotion to me in the wake of his restoration and I didn't want Rose to have that bond with anyone except me. But I was thinking of her, too. I knew that she wouldn't want to be that vulnerable with anyone else.

"No one is doing it," Nathan declared. "Rose needs to be put down, now. Look what she's doing after a week. The longer we wait, the stronger she gets. And the more people she kills."

"We are going to get Rose back," I told him. "And if anyone stakes her before then, I will have them up on murder charges."

"Lissa, you can't do that," Christian told me.

I whirled on him, but before I could say anything Dimitri was stepping in. "He's right, Lissa. You can't punish someone for killing a Strigoi, even if it is Rose. We're in a war, and right now she's fighting for the other side."

"So we get her on our side again." I turned to Abe, who had sat silently through our argument so far. I imagined that he had his own plans in place for anyone who hurt Rose, Strigoi or not. If we acted fast enough, perhaps he wouldn't have to follow through on any of them. "I need Sydney and Adrian, now."

He nodded and left the room without a word. I could have summoned them myself, of course, but Abe could probably get them here quicker. I looked at Dimitri. "Call Janine. Tell her to get here as soon as possible and the two of your pick out a team of guardians."

With Christian at my heels, I started out of the room, intent on finding Sonya and Nina. Nathan stepped in front of me. "Your Highness," he eyed me suspiciously, "what are you doing?"

I smiled innocently up at him. "I'm assembling a strike team."


	5. Chapter 5

ROSE

After one week, I was tired of killing humans. I knew that Derek and I were running neck and neck on our kill counts, and I was determined to be the one to awaken Lissa. That glory belonged to me, and no one was going to take it from me.

I briefly considered killing Derek. Master wouldn't like it, of course, but he'd get over it. Derek was useful, but killing him would prove that he was too weak to serve as the Master's right hand. The only thing holding me back was that I wasn't sure I could do it. Derek had been a dhampir before being awakened, so he and I would have been well matched in a fight before we were Strigoi. Now his extra years gave him the distinct advantage. The element of surprise would only take me so far. If I didn't disable him on my first attack, there was little doubt that I would end up dead.

So, much as it galled me, I took the quieter route of playing the game by the Master's rules. Someday I was determined to be the one making the rules. For now I would settle for winning some one else's game. As I saw it, I had two options. I could continue killing humans, rack up easy numbers, and hope that I came out ahead of Derek in another week. Or I could make a bolder statement. So I started going after Moroi.

The tricky part of hunting Moroi was finding them. They were well trained from a young age to avoid areas that made them targets for Strigoi. But once you had them cornered, they were even easier than humans to kill. They begged, they pleaded, they called for help. But they never fought back. It would have been disappointing, except their blood tasted so much better than humans'. In fact, I was drinking so much blood these days that I wasn't even draining my victims. Just a couple sips to enjoy the taste and then I'd snap their neck. It seemed like a waste, but a girl can only eat so much.

My first dhampir fight was exhilarating. It was the first time that I really got to test my new skills. I'd known that I was faster, but I hadn't realized just how much faster while fighting humans and Moroi. After all, I'd always been faster than them. But when I slapped the dhampir's silver stake away from my chest without even trying, I knew that I was unstoppable.

I planted my hand on her chest and shoved, sending her flying backward into the building she was trying to keep me out of. "There's a royal Moroi in there, isn't there?" I asked as I closed in on her. "Trying to lay low in a human hotel?" I laughed. "Then they really shouldn't have a guardian posted on the door, should they?"

She climbed to her feet, keeping her stake in between us. "You'll never touch her, monster."

"Really? You think you can stop me?" I was high on my own power. How could I ever have thought that death was better than this? Stronger, faster, unencumbered by emotions-I could do anything. And suddenly this little fight was just as boring as the others. Had I thought fighting a dhampir would be a challenge? It was a joke.

The dhampir charged me and I didn't even bother dodging. Instead I just caught her arm, holding her stake a foot out from my chest. "You're game, I'll give you that. But you couldn't have beat me when I was just like you. You don't have a chance now. Not at winning. But I'll give you a chance to live."

I tossed her away from me. "Run, and I won't chase you."

She didn't even consider my offer. Idiot. The second time she charged me, I didn't bother with her arm. I grabbed her neck and snapped it effortlessly. "I warned you." I let her body drop. I was a little hungry, but I didn't stop for a snack. There was something much better waiting inside.

I found a room key in the dhampir's pocket. "707? Must be my lucky number." I bounded into the hotel and up the stairway. Seven flights were nothing for me. I could have climbed Mt. Everest without breaking a sweat. I emerged into the hallway and found room 707. I almost barged right through the door, but decided to use the room key instead. No use drawing more people to the room until I'd had my fun.

"Rachel?" a voice called out when the locks on the door clicked loudly.

"Sorry, she's been unavoidably detained," I called back.

A tall, pale Moroi poked her head around the corner with a puzzled frown. As soon as she saw me she started screaming. I crossed to her in a single leap and wrapped my hand around her neck.

"None of that." I squeezed just hard enough to silence her. And felt her pulse throb against my fingers. Any thought of toying with her left my mind. I was hungry, and I was about to enjoy my best meal yet.

Her muffled screams turned into ecstatic moans as I drank from her, flooding her with endorphins. "See?" I told her. "If you just cooperate, we can both be happy." I took another drink before pausing to consider the taste. "Hmmm...royal blood doesn't really taste any better. But it does add a nice little spice to the whole idea." She whimpered in protest at the loss of endorphins. "More? Well, if you insist." I bent my head back down and finished her off.

When I dropped her body, her hand hit the bed frame with a loud clink. I flipped it over to find a large ring bearing the Ivashkov crest on her middle finger. Killing one of them didn't have quite the same impact, since they were such a large royal family, but it was a nice place to start. I briefly wondered how closely she and Adrian were related and just as quickly dismissed the thought. I didn't really care.

I laid her hand across her chest and took my phone out to take a picture. I sent it to both Derek and the Master along with a caption. _I think she should be worth double._

A reply from the Master came almost immediately. _Rose takes the lead. You'd better step up, Derek._

I grinned as I read the text. In one week, Lissa was all mine.


	6. Chapter 6

LISSA

I was so scared I was almost shaking. I couldn't remember ever being this scared before in my life. I automatically tried to calm myself by remembering that Rose was on her way. But it did no good this time. Rose wasn't on her way to rescue me. Rose was the reason I was trembling with fear.

"There is still time to call this off," Dimitri whispered to me. Trust him to notice how scared I was.

"No," I was adamant about this. The longer we waited, the more dangerous Rose became. This was our best shot at restoring her.

"We aren't even sure that she's going to show up," Christian reminded me.

"She will. Trust me, she won't be able to resist our bait." I immediately regretted my choice of words. Tasha Ozera was bait, but she was also Christian's aunt. We'd started rumors that she was being brought to Court in order to teach Christian some new offensive spells. She had been leading the campaign to teach Moroi to fight before she'd murdered Adrian's aunt.

Sonya was standing in the corner, glaring at me and rubbing Nina's shoulder soothingly. She wasn't happy that I had ordered Nina to be here. She had only recently recovered from her traumatic ordeal fighting Olive's nightmares. She was still very weak in spirit, and likely always would be. Sonya didn't want her working with the magic at all for a while longer. But I wanted her and Adrian to have all the help they could get, which at the moment meant Nina. After I restored Rose, I wouldn't be good for anything for a while.

I sighed and turned away from Sonya's accusing stare. This was why I didn't play the queen card that often. It turns out your friends don't like it when you can order them to do things they really don't want to do. But for this, it was necessary. Having four spirit users on hand at the moment of a Strigoi restoration was our best shot at finding a breakthrough in our vaccine. That was how I justified putting this operation together to save my best friend. It really would help save countless lives. Unless she killed us all. And assuming, of course, that we didn't kill each other first.

Adrian leaned against a wall, his casual stance not disguising his tension. Sydney was trying to distract him, but clearly his only thought was that his aunt's murderer was sitting ten feet away from him. Dimitri conspicuously avoided looking at Tasha. I wondered what his feelings for her were. They had been close before she murdered Tatiana. So close that Tasha had attempted to frame Rose for the crime so that she could get together with Dimitri. And then, just for icing on the cake, Tasha had shot at me during her wild attempt to escape from guardian custody. The only reason she hadn't killed me was because Rose leaped in front of me, taking the bullet, almost dying and breaking our bond in the process.

It didn't make for comfortable waiting conditions. And that was before you factored in the Strigoi attack that we were all anticipating.

"She might figure out that it's a trap," Dimitri warned me.

He had a valid point. For a prisoner like Tasha, we probably would have flown her straight into Court if we had really wanted her there. Even if we had forced her plane to land at the local regional airport, we certainly wouldn't have scheduled it to land in the middle of the night. Unless we wanted the Strigoi to come. We had checked her into a nearby motel, using the story that after my attack we thought it was safer to hole up and wait for daybreak to drive to Court.

"Even if she does, she'll still come." Rose may have been a monster, but I still knew her. "She's never turned down a challenge."

Dimitri smiled at that. Janine tried, but it turned out more like a grimace. She'd barely said anything since hearing the news, at least not to me. I'd seen her in a furious argument with Abe, though both of their voices had been too low for me to hear. I'd also caught her in a secret conference with Nathan.

I had a bad feeling that she was planning on staking Rose. She'd made no secret of the fact that she didn't approve of me being here. I knew that she desperately wanted to get Rose back, but she wouldn't put that ahead of her duty. Something that she'd passed on to her daughter.

The eight dhampirs stationed outside were under orders to let Rose through, but to kill any Strigoi she brought with her. I wasn't confident that they would follow those orders, but I didn't think that they'd be able to stop her. It was the guradians inside the room I was more worried about.

Dimitri was behind my plan 100%, even if it did bother his conscience a little. Janine really could go either way. I had little doubt that Nathan would go for the kill. If there'd been any way for me to leave him behind, I would have. Eddie rounded out the guardian detail. He was Rose's friend and I trusted him to try and restore her, but I also knew that after Jill died for a couple minutes, Sydney was taken by Alchemists, and then Jill disappeared, he was determined not to lose another charge. If things started to look bad, he'd help Nathan and Janine take Rose down.

Judging by the look on Abe's face as he watched them, he knew it too. There really was no reason for him to be here, except that he wanted to be and no one could stop him. He had been instrumental in setting this plan in motion, but his part in it was now done. I wished mine was.

To distract everyone from the rising tension in the room, I went over the plan again. "You five," I addressed Nina, Sonya, Abe, Adrian, and Sydney, "will wait in the adjoining room." Like Abe, Sydney didn't really have to be here, but she wouldn't be stopped. She would play a crucial role, but it could have waited until later.

"Tasha will stay where she is." That was tied up in an armchair and sedated. It was a defenseless position to put her in, but I didn't trust her enough to let her loose. "Christian, your job is to keep Rose away from her." At least I could trust him to do his job properly. I knew that he wouldn't let anything happen to his aunt, but he wouldn't fry Rose either. Just enough of a spark to keep her back was all that we needed.

"I'll be in that corner," I indicated the spot hardest to see from the doorway. "You four take up whatever positions you decide best," I told the guardians. I might have been leading this operation, but I wasn't arrogant enough to actually tell dhampirs how to fight a Strigoi. "As soon as you immobilize Rose," I gave Janine and Nathan a pointed look to remind them that immobilization was the goal here, "I'll stake her." Easier said than done, but it wasn't my first staking. And this time I could hopefully avoid any horrendous burns.

"As soon as she's restored, you three take her blood and contain it in the silver vials," I reminded the other spirit users. Getting her blood into charmed vials immediately should preserve whatever magic restoration left behind. Sonya would have all the time she needed to study it, and Sydney could use it to make more tattoos.

"Lissa," Christian stroked a hand down my arm, "everybody knows their job."

"I know. I'm sorry. I'm just-"

"Wait." Nathan cut me off, listening to the guardians stationed outside through his earpiece. "She's coming," he announced.

We all scrambled to take our places. I would have given anything to have Rose, _my_ Rose, with me. I could face anything with her. I thought of our plane starting its descent and her hand squeezing mine. "Showtime," I whispered.


	7. Chapter 7

ROSE

Watching the motel, I knew that going in there was a bad idea. I could smell the trap from a mile away. Ten days after I became a Strigoi, Tasha Ozera was needed at Court but had to spend the night in some little dump outside the wards? Subtle, guys. From the moment I'd heard the rumors, I knew that the best thing to do was walk away.

But this was me we were talking about. Of course I wasn't going to walk away. Tasha had done everything she could to ruin my life. When that hadn't worked, she'd shot me. Worse, she hadn't actually been shooting at me, but at Lissa.

It was weird how that still made me mad. My goal in life (Death? Unlife? Whatever.) at the moment was to awaken Lissa, but I still hated the thought of someone else hurting her. She was mine, and no one else was going to touch her.

Which was why I hadn't told the Master about tonight's adventure. I hadn't known him long, but I was pretty sure prudence was his middle name. He'd tell me to steer clear of this trap. And that I couldn't do. Once Tasha served her purpose at Court, assuming she had one beyond luring me out, she'd go back to prison and beyond my reach. If I wanted my revenge, I had to get it tonight.

If I was right and this was a trap, there was a good chance Lissa was in there. I was certain that she'd want to be in on any type of rescue attempt they made on me. And the Master probably knew that too. Which meant that he might want to come along tonight. Or, worse, send Derek. There was no way I was letting that guy awaken Lissa. Not when I'd so thoroughly humiliated him in our death match this past week and a half. It didn't matter what stunt he pulled in the next four days. When the Master called us in to plan our attack on the queen, I would be given the right to her blood. I wasn't going to risk him getting to her first in the confusion of a fight.

"Eight guardians outside. I don't know how many inside."

My thoughts were brought back to the present when one of my goons hissed in my ear. Well, one of the Master's goons, technically, on loan to me, but someday I'd have my own. I was finding them very useful.

I had two of them with me tonight. I would have liked more, but I hadn't wanted to draw Derek's attention to what I was doing. "Four for each of you. Think you can handle it?" Their eager smiles told me all I needed to know. "Let's go."

We made no attempt to be sneaky as we crossed the parking lot and zeroed in on Tasha's room. I was pretty sure we were expected anyways. I barely noticed the guardians who rushed out to meet us. I flicked one out of my path, sidestepped another one and then kicked in the door. It was payback time.

As soon as the door flew open four bodies came hurtling towards me. Nathan actually reached me first. I grinned, him I would enjoy killing. From the look in his eyes, the feeling was mutual. However shocked Dimitri and the others were at actually coming face to face with me, I knew they'd recover and join the fight soon. Best if I could get rid of Nathan quickly.

I had to admit, the guy was good. He feinted a few times and almost got me on the second one. But the third time he struck out at me I managed to grab his arm and swing him around into the wall. I felt his arm snap in my grip. I tossed him to the side with a chuckle and spun to face my other attackers.

Eddie came at me next, that constant sadness in his eyes even more pronounced than usual. As I waited for him to reach me, I spied Tasha tied to her chair. Christian was hovering protectively over her. "Serving her up fresh for me, Sparky? Thanks for that. I'll probably have a nice appetite worked up by the time I'm finished here."

He just swallowed hard and squared his shoulders, looking pale even for a Moroi. Eddie was dancing just out of my range and I realized the dilemma he was in. Apparently they were here to restore me, not kill me. But while guardians spent their whole lives learning how to kill Strigoi, we never spent that much time on capturing one alive.

It occurred to me that if they wanted to restore me, they needed a spirit user. So somewhere nearby…I leapt forward suddenly, taking Eddie off guard and sending him scrambling back. I used that brief opportunity to glance around the room. There she was. "Hey, Liss," I beamed at her. "Quite the little party you threw for me."

She shrank back into the corner, making me laugh. I had to turn back to Dimitri and my mother, who had managed to check on Nathan and form a plan while I toyed with Eddie. Now the three of them came at me in a line, pushing me back towards the opposite corner from Lissa.

"Miss me, Comrade?" I asked as I thought through my options. He didn't reply, but he blanched at hearing his nickname. I remembered how it had felt hearing him call me Roza when he was a Strigoi. "Too bad you can't be reawakened. But it's probably for the best. We'd have ended up killing each other anyways."

When that got no reaction I decided to switch targets. "A mother-daughter team has potential, though doesn't it?" My mom's face was a blank mask as I taunted her. "Just ask Christian, he knows about Strigoi families."

Involuntarily, all three of them turned slightly towards Christian when I said his name. Seizing my chance, I charged out, flinging myself at my mother in a full body tackle. She turned in time to brace for me, but I bowled right through her. I did a complete roll and came up on my feet. Dimitri was right there waiting for me. He grabbed my right arm, trying to twist it behind my back.

I swung out with my left fist, catching him right below the eye. The diamond on my hand caught on his skin, tearing it open. "Should have gotten me a smaller ring," I told him.

I broke free of his hold tried to go for Lissa, but Eddie was in between us. I turned to keep both him and Dimitri in my line of sight as my mother made it back to her feet and joined them again. We paused in a stand off, each party waiting for the other to make the first move.

"I'd awaken you, Eddie," I said. "We could do a lot together. I'd even help you get Jill-" as I had hoped, her name broke him. He charged. I lowered my shoulder, managing to pick him up and throw him at my mom. She dodged, but not enough and they both went down in a tangle.

Dimitri made his move while I was distracted with them. He darted in close, holding his stake up to my face. I froze. "Dimitri," I whined, looking at him pleadingly, "it's _me_."

He was too smart to really fall for that trick, but it did make him pause for a second. That was all I needed. Teeth bared, I swooped for his neck. And then pain like nothing I had ever imagined seared through every fiber of my being.

I fell to the ground, slumping over on my side. Something sticking out of my back prevented me from rolling any farther. I stared up at my mother in horrified comprehension. She had staked me.


	8. Chapter 8

LISSA

"No!" In my head, the protest was a ear-rending scream. But only a heart broken whisper came out of my throat. Janine had done it. How had I not stopped this? How had I allowed my best friend to be killed in a trap that I had laid?

Rose was writhing on the floor in agony. I wondered how long this would drag on. It would have to end soon. She had been staked by Janine Hathaway, and Janine never missed her mark.

"Your Highness!" It was Janine's voice that snapped me out of my shock. She dropped to her knees, pinning Rose's left arm to the ground. Dimitri hurled himself at her legs, using his full body to still her thrashing.

I suddenly realized what was happening. Eddie knelt to grab Rose's right arm, though the stake in her back kept him from pinning her flat. They were holding her so I could restore her. And that meant...

Janine had her hand on her stake, waiting to remove it when I was in position to strike. The stake, I know realized, which was just a little too low to hit Rose's heart. "Lissa, move!" Dimitri yelled.

It was the first time I had ever heard him raise his voice to me like that. I needed to step forward and do my part, but my limbs felt weighted. This thing on the floor wasn't my best friend. Not with that pale skin and those inhuman screams. Dimitri grunted as he struggled with her legs. Nathan crawled forward to help him, his skin almost as pale as mine and sweat beading on his forehead as he cradled his broken arm to his chest.

I jolted myself into motion. Less than a minute had passed since Janine staked Rose, but it felt like an eternity as I dragged myself across the room. Once I was hovering over them, Janine pulled her stake out and Eddie jerked Rose's arm out, forcing her flat on her back. I straddled her chest and tried to remember her lessons about force and angles and placement.

My first jab was off. Rose arched her back with a shrill cry as I yanked my stake out to try again. Again I felt the stake catch on bone, but I threw enough force behind the strike to have the tip skittering off her rib and over her heart. Once it hit softer tissue the stake sunk quickly and I was thrown off balance, my face almost bumping Rose's.

I called up my magic and released it into Rose. It was like bathing in sunshine. The warmth blew threw me, along with a blinding light that sucked all of my energy out with it. It tore through the room in a mighty blast. I was vaguely aware of the dhampirs getting thrown back, Nathan swearing viciously as his arm hit the floor.

The light grew in intensity until the entire room disappeared. For a minute I ceased to exist, suspended in that light and power. And then reality snapped back into place, dull and colorless and somehow heavy. But I wasn't paying attention to that. Because I was still eye to eye with Rose, and this time it was Rose, with brown eyes instead of red and tanned skin.

Okay, maybe not tanned. Her skin had the pallor someone who has just recovered from a serious illness. But compared to what it had looked like a second ago, she might have just finished a tropical vacation.

I reached out to smooth her hair back from her face, ready to comfort and reassure her the way I had Dimitri in the wake of his restoration. She threw herself backward, craning her neck to avoid my touch. "Get away from me," she said harshly.

I recoiled as though she had slapped me. Before I could recover, the door to the adjoining room burst open and Adrian and Sonya led the charge out. They advanced on Rose with needles raised and she dropped into a defensive crouch.

Janine and Eddie immediately leapt into action, grabbing her shoulders and forcing her against the wall. "Gentle!" I cried as they wrestled her into place.

She almost fought them off, but then Janine lowered her head and whispered something in Rose's ear. I wish I had heard what, but Rose stopped fighting at that point. The other spirit users converged on her then.

Sydney, I realized, was the one actually drawing blood out of her left arm, with Adrian hovering over her channeling spirit. I assumed he was, anyways, since I was too burnt out at the moment to actually see anything. Sonya was drawing blood out of her other arm. Nina was right there with her, but I couldn't tell if she was actively helping or not.

It seemed to me that they just kept producing more vials as they filled them with blood. I suddenly couldn't remember how many we had charmed. My head was starting to feel fuzzy, and I dearly would have loved a nap.

When they finally drew back, Janine and Eddie released Rose, but she just stood there, leaning back against the wall. "Did we take too much?" I asked.

"Twenty vials," Sonya told me. "That's what we agreed on."

"I know it sounds like a lot, but that's less than half of what's taken at a standard donation," Sydney added.

It did all sound familiar We'd had this conversation before. I was just having trouble remembering. I almost pitched over, but Christian was there to catch me. "Time to get you off your feet," he said.

Dimitri stepped forward. "Let's go, Roza." He held his hand out to her but she flinched away from his touch. In his eyes I could see the same hurt and rejection that I felt.

"We did it!" Sonya's victory cheer didn't fit with the mood in the room, though she was so engrossed in studying the vials I'm not sure she noticed the atmosphere. But she was right, we'd won. Rose was restored, her blood was secured, and we should be making a breakthrough in our vaccine soon. But it was hard to feel triumphant when she obviously hated me.

Rose crossed the room and flung the door open. The guardians we'd left stationed outside broke apart, apparently interrupted in the middle of a debate on whether they should check on us or not. They started to advance on Rose, but Abe stopped them. "She's back."

She looked them over sadly. "Five of you?" At their nod she hung her head. "There were eight," she said to no one in particular. Dimitri once again stepped up to her and she once again dodged him.

As the group crossed the parking lot I laid a comforting hand on Dimitri's back. "She doesn't really hate us," I told him.

"No." He watched carefully as she climbed into the back of one of our SUVs. "She hates herself."


	9. Chapter 9

**Warning: Things are getting dark. Nothing that wasn't in the books, but there is cutting in this chapter. Rose has a tough road ahead of her. Thanks for coming along for the trip so far. Your reviews have been amazing.**

ROSE

I scrunched up in the corner of the SUV, watching the landscape whiz past the window. Dimitri was driving and Lissa was sitting beside kept turning around to look at me, but I kept my face turned to the outside. I knew what I would see if I looked at her. Relief to have me back, joy that I was me again, that unconditional love that had always flowed between us. All things that I didn't deserve.

Sonya was sitting beside me. She hadn't said a word the entire trip, which I was grateful for. I suppose if anyone understood what I felt then, she did. But I didn't deserve understanding either. I thought of my mother's stake in my back. That's what I deserved. If only she'd aimed just a little higher. Of course, she hadn't meant to kill me. Janine Hathaway would never miss like that. I didn't know if I'd ever forgive her for that.

When we got to Court I waited for the car to empty before I started to climb out. Lissa was watching me with tears in her eyes. She started to speak, but didn't seem to know what to say. Christian took her hand and tugged her away gently.

Dimitri was waiting for me, but I turned and walked the other direction. I didn't know where I was going, exactly, I just wanted to walk. He followed behind me, silently keeping pace. I covered most of the grounds before I went back to our apartment. Night was just ending, bedtime for us nocturnal creatures.

Dimitri shrugged out of his duster and walked into our bedroom. I went to our east window, hugging myself tight as I watched the horizon Dimitri stepped back into the doorway, I spoke without turning.

"Do you know how many I killed?"

"No," he answered quietly.

"I kept track." I pulled out my phone, with its running tally of my victims. "If I killed more than Derek, the Master was going to let me kill Lissa. It was all a game." I scrolled through my list. "Twelve humans in one week. Then I got bored. But Moroi are harder to find. I only found five of them. Five killed in four days. Two royals."

I leaned my forehead against the glass. "I didn't count guardians. They weren't worth any points. Just obstacles to get through. Just dhampirs."

Dimitri stepped up and laid his hands on my shoulders. I tried to shrug him off, but he held on tight. "It wasn't you, Roza." He leaned down and kissed the back of my head. "I know it doesn't feel like that now, but it wasn't."

I didn't answer him. Because it didn't really matter if it was me or not. Not when I had the voices and faces of my victims swimming in my head.

He gave me a gentle tug backwards. "Come to bed."

I pulled back. "You go ahead. I want to watch the sunrise."

He didn't go. Together we stood and watched the dawn break.

My days fell into a rhythm. I almost even managed to convince myself that it was a comfortable one. I got used to avoiding eye contact with everyone. I got used to watching over Lissa without cracking jokes. I got used to haunting the lab where Sonya experimented with my blood. I even got used to sleeping on the opposite side of the bed from Dimitri since I wouldn't let him touch me.

I don't know if I would have been able to keep myself away from Dimtri's arms for long, but I wasn't actually spending that much time in our bed. I was having horrible nightmares, where I relived all my kills. The worst ones, though, weren't memories. They were nightmares of me killing my friends, laughing as they stared up at me with empty eyes and slack faces.

I took to roaming around Court during the day. I enjoyed the sunshine, even more than I had before I was Strigoi. As an added bonus, almost everyone else was sleeping, so there were less people for me to avoid.

Of course, there was no hiding my condition. I was losing weight, and since the few hours of sleep I managed to snag usually ended with the nightmares, I constantly looked and felt exhausted. Nathan removed me from Lissa's protection detail, since I was never alert enough to fulfill my duties. I didn't argue with him. Adrian had healed his arm before we'd even left the motel, but I still couldn't look him in the eye.

Sonya was actually the person I was most comfortable with these days. I barely said anything to her and she didn't push. She never spoke to me unless I spoke first, just let me watch her work. I had no clue what she was doing, either with biology or magic, but I took comfort from the fact that she was doing something. This was my redemption, the one good thing that could possibly come out of my time as a Strigoi.

And then that hope was ripped from me. Adrian and Sonya were bent over a vial of my blood while Sydney worked with a microscope at another table. I wasn't trying to follow their conversation, I was just glad that Sonya had convinced the other two to let me sit quietly in the corner and watch. But even I understood giving up.

"I don't know what else to try." Sonya slipped off her gloves and sat back. "You might as well use it all to make as much ink as you can, Sydney. It's obvious enough what's different about Rose's blood, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to duplicate it."

None of them looked at me. Apparently I'd become such a fixture here they'd forgotten I was watching. I slid out of the room like a ghost, my last hope of redemption gone. Doomed to wander like a lost spirit forever.

Somehow I wound up in Lissa's rooms. She wasn't there, but I stayed. I aimlessly picked through her things, studying her clothes, her books, her shoes. Almost like a normal college student. But we'd never been normal, even for vampires. And we never would be.

In her bathroom I found razor blades. I took one out and sat down on the floor with it, turning it in my fingers. Slowly, curiously, I drew it across my arm and watched the thin red line bead up in its wake. I'd never understood Lissa's cutting, but it almost made sense now. My head was just too full and loud and confusing these days. And my body felt cold and numb. That thin red line brought pain, but it was warm and real in a way that nothing else in my life was.

I drew a second line, a little deeper this time. I watched my blood flow out. No reason to keep it inside me. It was worthless. It was supposed to by my salvation, but it had failed me. I had failed everyone.


	10. Chapter 10

LISSA

I started up the steps to my private rooms with a heavy sigh. Rose was still avoiding me. Avoiding everyone, to be fair. That didn't make me feel any better.

"She's been through a lot," Christian reminded me. "She just needs time."

"She needs me," I corrected him. I didn't understand why no one else saw that. We'd let Rose pull back and now I was afraid that with each passing day the gap between us only widened further.

"Your Highness," one of the guardians stationed on my door bowed to me. "Guardian Hathaway is inside."

"I thought Janine had to go back," Christian said.

"He means Rose." I opened the door and smelled it immediately. Blood. Whirling around, I shoved Christian out the door. Whatever was going on in here, it wasn't for him.

"Lissa!" he pounded on the door, jiggling the knob frantically.

"Go away!" I called out. I doubted he went anywhere, but at least he stopped banging. I threw the lock just in case and went looking for my best friend.

"Rose?" I found her in my bathroom, sitting on the tiles with the razor blade still in her hand. I knelt down beside her. "Did something happen today?"

She shook her head. "Nothing happened. That's the problem." She looked up at me. "Does this really make you feel better?"

"No, not really." I felt shaky and sick, terrified and furious. Was this how she and Christian felt when I cut? As soon as I got Rose out of here I was throwing out every razor blade I'd ever bought. I might even ban them from Court permanently. "Do you feel any better?"

"No." She let me take the razor blade away from her. "Nothing helps. But she told me this would."

"What? Who?" I snapped out, sharper than I intended.

"My mother," she answered. "She told me if I let you have my blood, I could fix things. I could make it right. But it didn't help. They can't do anything with it." I held my bloody wrist out to her. "Maybe you just need to take more. Take all of it this time. I don't want it."

"I'd rather you kept it," I told her. "I went to an awful lot of trouble to see that you did."

"Why?" she asked. "Why do you keep bringing me back?" She dropped her head into her hands. "Why can't you just let me go?"

For a moment I almost felt guilty. Was it selfish of me to keep dragging her back to the world of the living? And then the fury came rushing back in. Yes, I was selfish, and I was unashamed. I wasn't going to let anyone take her from me. Not fate, not Strigoi, and certainly not her.

"You'd rather be dead, is that it?" I demanded. "Rather be dead than living your life? Yeah, I guess you have it pretty bad, being the queen's best friend. It must be rough, having a gorgeous Russian god in love with you. Poor Rose, the most famous guardian in history."

Rose shrank back from me and I almost stopped, but I was convinced that I was right. Rose didn't need any more time. She needed to be reminded of who she was. We'd waited for her to come lean on us, but that wasn't Rose. She needed to be leaned on. Needed to be reminded that she was the strong one.

"Well that's not an option, Rose. You don't get to opt out. You think I seriously wanted to be queen? You think ruling the Moroi is fun for me? Well it isn't. And it's your fault I ended up here. So you stick it out with me because I can't do this without you."

She straightened up a little bit and I saw something flicker in her eyes. Something that almost looked like Rose. "Come on," I coaxed. "You've got to start taking care of yourself. I need you."

Rose huffed out a breath. "If you need me you really are in trouble. I'm a mess."

"I'll help you clean up," I promised her. We started by washing and bandaging her wrist. I was feeling much more optomistic as I led her out into my bedroom. "What you need is a couple of good meals and- whoop!" She stumbled and we both went sprawling onto my bed. "Okay, maybe sleep first, then food."

"I can't sleep," she whispered, her head down. "I have nightmares."

"Hey," I grabbed her chin. "You have nothing to be ashamed of. You're not weak. After what you've been through, I'd be more worried if you weren't having nightmares. We'll just have to find something to help you sleep." I thought for a minute. "I don't have any sleeping pills. We can get some later. For now, we'll try Adrian's tried and true method."

"What's that?" Rose asked as I disappeared into my little kitchenette. "Getting drunk?"

I reappeared in the bedroom with a bottle of vodka. Rose gave me an incredulous stare. "Really?"

"Really." I sat beside her on the bed and twisted the cap off. "I have some whiskey, too, but I figured this would be more to your tastes." I took a swig and passed the bottle to her.

She smiled a little and I felt like standing up and cheering. "Bottoms up."

~YT~

I wasn't sure what time it was when I left Rose sleeping and made my way outside. I was a little surprised to find the sun up. At least no one was around to watch the queen weave drunkenly across the Court. Maybe I should have stayed put until I was a little more sober. But I was drunk and angry and this seemed like the perfect time to have it out with a certain Russian guardian.

Uncaring of the guardians trying to sleep in their own apartments, I pounded furiously on Dimitri's door. When he opened it, I could tell that he hadn't been asleep.

"Lissa? Where's Rose? Is she okay?"

"No, she's not okay." I pushed past him into his apartment. "She's about as far from okay as you can get, and it's our fault."

"I know it's difficult. But with a little more time-"

"Yeah sure, more time, that's what we need! Let's let Rose wallow in her own misery a little longer. Let's not do anything until I find her bleeding on my bathroom floor. Never mind, I already did!" I whipped the bloody razor blade out of my pocket and threw it at his feet.

The blood drained out of Dimitri's face. "What...? I don't understand..."

"But you should," I told him. "Maybe I can't understand what Rose is going through, but you should, because you did the exact same thing! I brought you back and you did everything you could to push Rose away. Except it didn't work because she dug in and pushed back. And now she's the one pushing us away and we let her."

I suddenly felt very tired and more than a little sick. I wobbled over to their kitchen table and collapsed into a chair. "You fix this, Dimitri."

"I will," he promised. "Somehow."

"Sleeping with her would be a good start." Did I really just say that? I must be drunker than I realized.

"I beg your pardon?"

"It's the vodka talking," I told him. "But seriously, why aren't you? And I don't mean sleeping with her. I mean _sleeping_ with her." God, I just couldn't shut up.

"Rose hasn't indicated that she wanted to...sleep with me," Dimitri answered stiffly.

"Of course she does. She can't keep her hands off you." Wow, I needed to stop. Now. "You fix this." I dropped my head on the table and fell asleep.


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey, guys. Sorry the updates have been slow. Depressed Rose is kind of hard to write and I want to make sure I do her justice. Thanks for all the reviews, you guys are seriously great. Cheers!**

 **Update: Apologies to the reader who was offended I said Bethlehem was in Israel. I was sticking with first century geography and didn't mean to ruffle any feathers. Hopefully Dimitri can smooth everything over for me. Thanks for reading!**

* * *

ROSE

I woke feeling terrible. And also, strangely good. Which I guess it what happens when you combat your depression by getting drunk with your best friend and end up with a terrible hangover. But I felt more like me than I had in a long time. Then I threw up.

Lissa wasn't around, so I cleaned up a little and let myself out. I didn't really know what to do. Our vampiric day was just beginning, but I had nowhere to be. I still wasn't allowed to be part of Lissa's protection. The fact that I had been removed didn't upset me nearly as much as the fact that I hadn't fought it even a little.

Since losing my job, I'd been haunting the lab. But I had no desire to go back to sitting around and hearing how useless my blood was. So instead I just went home. I was more than a little disappointed when I got there and Dimitri was nowhere to be found. Maybe he had better things to do than babysit me all day, but didn't he care where I had been all night?

I found myself getting a little irritated. Maybe it had taken her over a week, but Lissa had finally hunted me down and done something with me. Dimitri apparently thought it was fine to avoid me until I snapped out of my little "poor me I turned Strigoi and killed a lot of people" phase. Maybe he only wanted me when I was the fun girlfriend.

I sat down and turned my ring around and around on my finger. I'd avoided getting engaged for long enough that when Dimitri finally got me to commit, we hadn't actually pursued getting married. I thought that he hadn't forced me to set a date because he was still basking in the victory of getting me engaged. But maybe he was having second thoughts of his own.

Some part of me knew that this wasn't really true. I knew that Dimitri loved me and if I said, "Hey, let's get married tomorrow," he'd be all for it. But I was angry, and I was sad, and I still felt sick from my binge drinking the night before. So instead of trying to sort through all of my confusing feelings, I brushed my teeth and crawled back into bed.

I woke up when something bounced off the bed beside me. I opened my eyes to see a silver stake lying on the mattress. I sat up enough to see Dimitri standing at the foot of our bed before I groaned and fell back against my pillow.

"I'm sick."

"No, you're not," he told me. "You're hung over."

"Potato potahto," I muttered as I buried my head under the pillow.

"Get up, Rose. We have things to do."

"I don't wanna."

"Too bad." He reached down and ripped the pillow away from me. "We're going hunting."

Really? I weighed that in my mind for a moment. Spend another day avoiding everybody and drowning in my own guilt, or go kill a couple of undead monsters? Tough choice there. I bounded out of bed with more energy than I'd had since my restoration. "Give me five minutes."

It wasn't quite five minutes, but after a quick shower I felt ready to go. I also felt so clean I had to stop and wonder when the last time was I showered. No wonder Dimitri wasn't fighting my "no touch" policy.

I stewed about that as we drove out of Court. There was no doubt in my mind that my drinking session with Lissa was somehow connected to this outing. How pathetic was I? My fiance was only doing something with me because my best friend used her queenly powers to order him to. Screw that.

"You don't have to do this," I told him.

"Do what?" he asked, eyes on the road.

"Go hunting with me. Obviously you don't want to."

He did look over at me then, but only for a second. "Why wouldn't I want to?"

"Because you don't want to do anything with me. You haven't touched me since I've been Strigoi."

"You told me you didn't want-"

"I never said that!" I exploded. "I told you not to touch me, but I never said I didn't want you to."

He groaned. "Are all women this confusing?"

"It's pretty damn simple, Comrade. I just went on a killing spree that set records for newly turned Strigoi. For any Strigoi. I shouldn't get to come home to my dream job and my best friend and my gorgeous fiance. But I did and I can't enjoy it because I don't deserve any of it!"

"That's not true," he protested.

"If it's not true then why won't you even look at me?"

"I'm driving!" he snapped.

"And have you been driving for the past 8 days?"

He slammed on the brakes so hard that I had to brace myself against the dashboard. He wrenched the wheel to the right, bringing us to a sliding stop on the shoulder. Before I could process what was happening he had his seat belt off and was lunging at me.

I was pinned under him at an awkward angle as he kissed me. My seat belt was digging into my side, the door handle was digging into my spine and my neck was not meant to bend the way it currently was. I was in heaven.

I ran my fingers up into his hair to pull him closer to me. I felt like I was being devoured and I was happy to let him. I'm pretty sure we might have ended up moving things to the backseat right there on the side of the road, but then I arched up into him and something popped. I couldn't hold back a little cry.

Dimitri instantly levered himself off of me, his face concerned. "What was that?"

I closed my eyes and focused on breathing through the pain. "I think it was my vertebrae."

"I'm sorry." I had no doubt he meant it, but I could hear the chuckle in his voice. He reached out to brush my cheek. "Still think I don't want you?"

"Even though I may be paralyzed as well as depressed now?" I asked.

"No matter what." He chuckled. I wiggled my toes just to make sure I still could. "We're almost there," he told me as he put the car back in gear and started forward again.

"Almost where?"

"Bethlehem."

"What is this, like a spiritual journey for my soul? Pretty sure we're not in Israel, Comrade."

"Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. And the other Bethlehem's in Palestine." he told me. We shared a little look, both glad to be back in our familiar rhythm. "They have a Strigoi problem."

"Palestine does?"

I flashed a grin at him as he rolled his eyes. "They have a Strigoi problem here," he clarified.

"Not for long." I took my stake out and twirled it between my fingers, eager for the fight to start. I was done lying around moping. It was time to kick some ass.


	12. Chapter 12

ROSE

One thing about Dimitri, he doesn't exaggerate. When he says that a place has a Strigoi problem, go in prepared. Because chances are you're going to be fighting before you've even finished locking up the car.

Hell, I was fighting before I even got out of the car. To be fair, we drove around town for a little while before finally deciding to park in the darkest, shadiest looking lot we could find. Dimitri didn't even have the keys out of the ignition yet when a Strigoi hurled himself against the car.

I kicked my door open, which knocked him back a few feet. Before he recovered his balance I was on my feet and closing in. We traded blows back and forth for a little bit. And the most amazing thing happened. I quit thinking.

I wasn't thinking about how I'd murdered anybody I could find for almost two weeks. I wasn't thinking about how my one desire in life had been to turn my best friend into a monster. Dimitri was fighting his own battle just a few feet from me, but I wasn't thinking about how casually I'd decided to kill him. All the guilt and depression and anger went away. There was just me and the Strigoi.

It wasn't exactly a zen state. Every time I blocked a blow with my forearm the pain sang up my arm. And when the Strigoi snuck past my defenses and landed a blow, that singing turned into a primal howl. But this was what I was meant to do. I'd spent my whole life training for this. For the first time I really, truly believed that I could come the whole way back to myself.

It was such a great feeling I was almost disappointed when I managed to elbow the Strigoi's arm out of my way and jam my stake into his heart. Not until he fell did I realize that Dimitri's Strigoi was already dead. I turned to where he had been watching me fight.

He was smiling proudly at me. "You're glowing," he said.

I believed it. I could almost feel little beams of light shooting out of my fingers. But not those little golden beams that came out of a fairy tale. These were deadly lasers, ready to mow down any enemy in my path. They were pure power.

Dimitri pulled me in for a quick kiss. "We should have done this sooner."

"Definitely," I agreed happily. But as we went on the prowl for more Strigoi, my mood began to turn. Why hadn't we done this sooner? Why had it taken a royal edict from Lissa to get Dimitri to move his ass? I stewed over these questions as we stumbled upon another group of Strigoi. This time I wasn't messing around. I took down two in less time than I'd killed the first one and Dimitri and I took out the last one together.

"Why not?" I demanded as soon as we were clear.

"What?" Dimitri asked distractedly, scanning the area for more Strigoi. Like he needed to do that when I was there.

"Why didn't we do this sooner?"

"You weren't ready," he told me.

"Like hell I wasn't. I was on the verge of being suicidal, Dimitri." He flinched at that, but I pressed on. "What exactly were you waiting for?"

"I was waiting for you to come to me."

"Oh, like you came to me when you were restored. Oh, wait, that didn't happen!" I punched him in frustration. I'd put more than a little power behind it, but he only swayed slightly to maintain his balance. Have I mentioned how much I love having a boyfriend who can handle whatever I throw at him? But I wasn't going to be distracted by his muscles right now. "I had to dog you like mad to get you to even look at me!"

"And I hated it!" Dimitri closed his eyes and breathed deeply before continuing. "I wasn't ready. And I hated knowing that I was pushing you away and disappointing you. I thought it would be better if I waited until you came to me for help."

"Really? And where do you think we'd be right now if I had waited? You needed that shove, Comrade. But maybe that's just you. Lissa had to give you a shove to get you here tonight. Maybe you're still not ready for this." I turned and started walking. One block down I ran into another pair of Strigoi. Seriously, this town needed help bad.

Dimitri joined the fight and we knocked these two out easily. Even before they were dead we were jumping back into our fight.

"Don't you dare put words like that into my mouth," he said softly.

"Can you blame me?" I cried. "I've been leading the way in this relationship since day one. Me always pushing, you always pulling back. It's time for you to do some pushing!"

He grabbed my hand and waved my ring around. "Like this, you mean? You're the one who didn't want to get engaged and now you don't want to set a date."

"You haven't asked me about it for ages."

"Because I don't want to pressure you into something you don't want to do!"

"Like marry the love of my life? Yeah, that would be an awful thing, wouldn't it?" I didn't know why I was pushing this now. There are better places to get in screaming matches with your boyfriend than dark alleys. Case in point, a Strigoi almost grabbed me before I noticed her because I was so wrapped up in Dimitri.

Of course, that turned out to be a bad choice for the Strigoi. I was pissed. I don't know why I was suddenly so angry, but I was. It was ugly enough when I let it spew out on Dimitri. With her, it was brutal.

I don't really remember that fight. Afterward, I had several nasty scratches that must have hurt like hell, but I never felt them. I'm not even sure when I killed her. Because when she went down I went with her. While Dimitri fought off three Strigoi by himself, I knelt on her chest and drove my stake into her over and over again. At some point I started sobbing. I have no idea how long I would have stayed there, but Dimitri finally finished his fight and pulled me off of her.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled into his chest through my tears. "I don't know what's wrong with me."

"Nothing is wrong with you," he said firmly. "You're healing. It's going to take time, that's all."

The crying left me more tired than fighting packs of Strigoi had. I sighed and lay me head on his shoulder. "Will you take me home?"

"Of course." He picked me up to carry me to the car. "We'll be there in time to have dinner with Lissa."

"No, I mean your home. I want to see your family."

He kissed the top of my head. "I'll book us tickets as soon as we're back."


	13. Chapter 13

**Really sorry for how long this took, guys. About halfway through I realized I didn't know where I was going with it. But I've figured it out and we're back on track. Cheers!**

ROSE

The Belikovs are a great family. I mean that. And it's a darn good thing I do, because I'm going to be one of them someday. Kind of. Maybe. The whole last name thing is still sort of up in the air for Dimitri and me. I'm really hoping there's some point in my life where figuring out whether or not I want to take my husband's last name is my biggest problem.

The point is, I love Dimitri's family. But they weren't making me feel any that they'd had much time to do anything. We'd only been in Baia for a couple of hours. And from the moment Dimitri and I had walked in the door, they'd been nothing but nice to me. We were greeted with open arms like returning heroes. Just like last time I was here. It was as if nothing had changed.

And that was the problem. Everything had changed. _I_ had changed. I killed people. And not Strigoi, or the people who served them, or even someone like Viktor Dashkov. Innocent people who posed no threat to me. And I hunted them for fun.

When things started to feel a little too crowded, I slipped out to get some air. We were in Russia, so the air was a little extra crisp, but I enjoyed it. I was sitting there trying very hard not to sulk. I'd been angry at Court because the people I loved had given me too much space. Now I was unhappy about being smothered. So I was difficult to please. Sue me.

Yeva came out and sat beside me. I wasn't sure how I felt about Dimitri's grandmother. In some ways, she was my favorite Belikova. At the same time, I didn't really like her.

"Dobro pozhalovat' , vnuchka."

"Great, back to not speaking to me. In English, anyways." Part of the reason I didn't really like her was because she'd pretended not to speak English during my entire visit the first time I met her. Considering I had come on a mission to kill Dimitri, that was hardly my biggest complaint about that trip, but still.

"I said 'welcome, granddaughter.'" She leaned over and kissed my cheek.

That was actually kind of sweet for the old bird. "Thanks."

"It is hard for you, being here."

"Everything's hard right now."

"I watch you with Dimitri, and I see your love. You do not blame him for what he has done."

"He hasn't done anything," I told her, confused.

"Hasn't he? I seem to remember him being Strigoi, and holding you prisoner."

"That wasn't him. He didn't have a soul." I remembered the pain of thinking he had been lost, my promise to him not to leave him like that. I was glad that I didn't have to kill him. "Nothing he did as a Strigoi is his fault."

"But he shouldn't have been Strigoi in the first place," Yeva insisted. "In your home, they call him the Russian god, do they not? He is not supposed to lose to anyone."

"Everyone can lose," I snapped. "That's the first thing a guardian learns. It's how you keep from getting cocky."

"Everyone except you, of course." I suddenly got the bad feeling that a trap had been sprung and it was too late for me to dodge. "Dimitri can be forgiven for losing. And of course he couldn't be expected to be anything other than a monster once he was turned. You cannot hold such weaknesses against him. But you, you are better than that. Stronger than him."

"No," I protested. "I'm not...I never said..." my voice trailed off as I thought about what she said. "I don't think I'm better than Dimitri."

She gave me a pat on the thigh before she climbed to her feet. " Voyti v glaza osleplyayet vas."

"You know I don't know what that means," I told her.

"Most people refuse to see the log in their own eye," she said. "You are blinded by yours."

I thought for a minute. "I still don't get it."

"Yes you do," she answered.

Another thing I found annoying about Yeva, she was right far too often. Maybe I was holding myself to an impossibly high standard. And maybe I was somehow putting myself above Dimitri for not holding him to that same standard. So I tried to fix it.

Not to brag, but I did a pretty fantastic job of it, too. Just like the first time I was here, I fell into a comfortable rhythm with the Belikovs. They accepted me as part of their family without question. And this time it was even better, because Dimitri was with us. I began to envision a future where we stayed here and grew old together and raised a family. And then reality kicked in.

I wasn't meant to grow old in a commune. I was meant to fight Strigoi. And yeah, there were plenty of them around anytime I wanted to go hunting, but I wanted more than that. As the days flew by, I developed the habit of tracing my promise mark on the back of my neck. I was happy here, but that happiness was making me miserable. Worse, though, Dimitri was happy here, and I knew that if I left he'd go with me.

Olena knew. She watched me with those maternal eyes of hers. Waiting for me to leave and take her son with me. I wondered if I would ever be able to fully love her without feeling like I was betraying my own mother. It was better now that I no longer resented her for leaving me. After all, anyone who knew Janine Hathaway knew that she was meant to be out fighting. And wasn't I doing the same thing, chomping at the bit to leave my peaceful existence in Baia?

Still, I couldn't leave without doing one more thing, though I'd put it off for as long as possible. I visited Mark and Oksana. Dimitri offered to go with me, but I turned him down. This I had to do alone.

And that was the problem. I liked Mark and Oksana and they'd once helped me save Lissa's life. I would forever be indebted to them. But it was hard to sit there and talk with them, knowing that they were still bonded when Lissa and I were not.

"I miss it." Without meaning to, I just blurted the words out into the middle of our polite chitchat. "The bond." It was a relief to say it. Even more of a relief was seeing the understanding in Mark and Oksana's eyes. They didn't think I was some creepy voyeur for wishing that I could still see into Lissa's mind.

"I can't imagine, losing that connection," Mark said. "As hard as it is to get used to, once you adapt, it's part of you."

"She was part of me," I corrected him. "And now she's not."

"Not in the same way, maybe," Oksana agreed, "but Lissa still needs you."

"Well, she is the queen," I pointed out. "She'll always need guardians to protect her."

"I didn't say she needs guardians." Oksana locked gazes with me. "She needs you."

The skin on the back of my neck prickled. "Is something going on?"

"Court gossip doesn't make it the whole way out here," Mark said with a slight smile that faded quickly, "but there are rumors. Something isn't right."

"It takes an extraordinary amount of spirit to bring someone back from Strigoi. And we three know better than most the type of payment that is required." Oksana reached out to twine her fingers with Mark's. "Lissa needs her bondmate."

I dropped my head into my hands as the implication of Oksana's words sank in. Mark leaned over to look in my eyes. "You were entitled to this time," he told me. "You needed to heal. Now go help her heal."

Guilt over leaving Lissa warred with despair over my helplessness. "I'm not her bondmate anymore."

Oksana smiled gently at me. "Of course you are."

I called Dimitri as soon as I left Oksana and Mark. "Time to book us another pair of tickets, Comrade. We need to go home."


	14. Chapter 14

LISSA

As yet another evening blackened the sky outside, I fought the urge to get up and pound on the door. They weren't going to let me out. And repeating my pleas and commands for the hundredth time when they hadn't garnered any results yet was the very definition of insanity. Since I was already on trail for being mentally unstable, it was best I didn't do anything to convince the Council that I really was over the edge.

I couldn't really blame them, at least not in my calmer moments. I had Compelled the entire Council in the middle of a session. I had only been able to hold them all for a few seconds, true, but that wasn't the point. The point was that I had crossed a line that nobody had ever believed could be crossed.

I was fairly certain that they weren't planning on holding me criminally liable. Adrian and Sonya had both petitioned hard on my behalf, making the Council understand how much pressure Spirit users were under, especially one who had just done such an incredible feat as restore a Strigoi. Abe had mentioned a show of contrition on my part, but I hadn't actually been asked to make one yet.

Which was a damn good thing, because I wasn't the least bit sorry. As long as people on the Council continued to push for mandatory guardian service from the dhampirs, I would continue to do everything in my power to fight them. Even if it landed me in Tarasov.

That still wasn't off the table, either. Just because the Council had decided that I couldn't be held responsible for my actions didn't mean that I was going to get off free. Now they were trying to determine if I was insane or not.

My stellar record as a Spirit user actually worked against me here. I had restored Dimitri, brought Rose back from the dead, and restored her as well. People were beginning to wonder if the effects of these huge feats were cumulatively eroding my sanity. I wished that I wasn't wondering the same thing.

I couldn't help but think that this would all go away if Rose was home. I don't know what I expected her to do, but this was her specialty. She took charge of impossible situations and made it all better.

If nothing else, I knew Rose would at least look me in the eye and talk to me. Even Christian was only in my room for brief visits. I really wanted to believe that he was being forced to stay away. I didn't want to think that my own boyfriend was afraid of me. But I couldn't really blame him if he was. Even I hadn't been prepared for how powerful my Compulsion had become. Who knew what I was capable of, or what someone else would be capable of under my control?

Cut off from the rest of the world as I was, I didn't know what everyone else thought, but I knew that something had to change soon. The Council was using the story that I was sick to explain my prolonged absence from the public view. Even that was suspicious. Vampires didn't get sick, not unless it was something really serious like Victor's Sandovsky's disease. Their story wouldn't hold for long. They were going to have to make a decision, and soon.

One way or another, my time was running out. I pressed myself against my window and tried to call through the bond that was no longer there. _Come on, Rose, I need you. Come home._


	15. Chapter 15

**Really sorry about the long wait. Fanfiction is my cure to writer's block, which hasn't been a problem for me lately, but I've just run into a wall. Bad for my project, good for this story. I've got it finished now, so no more huge gaps, I promise! Thanks for sticking it out. Cheers!**

ROSE

"Rose, sit down and relax. We'll be landing soon and you'll see then that Lissa is fine."

I continued pacing up and down the aisle of the small jet taking us back home. "She's not fine," I snapped at Dimitri.

He sighed and stretched out his legs, trying to make his long self comfortable in the tiny seats. "Okay, she's a little sick-"

"We don't get a little sick," I reminded him. "Either she's really sick, and that's bad, or..." I trailed off as I thought of the alternatives.

"Or what?" Dimitri voiced my thoughts. "Or Christian lied to you? Why would he do that?"

"I don't know," I admitted, finally sitting back down beside him. "But Oksana reminded me of what happens when someone uses as much spirit as Lissa did to bring me back."

"She's done it before," he soothed.

"Yeah, and I was there to help her deal with the aftermath. This time I _was_ the aftermath. This isn't good Dimitri."

"You're panicking prematurely," he told me. "We don't know what we're getting into down there, but whatever it is, we'll handle it. We've handled worse."

"I hope you're right." Ever since I had tried to call Lissa only to find out that Christian had her phone and no one was allowed to talk to her, my mind had been racing with all the possible scenarios that could be playing out at Court. "If she's really sick, quarantining her is one thing, but why couldn't I talk to her? It's not like the germs are going to travel over the airwaves."

"If she's really sick, she needs rest."

My leg started bouncing up and down as I fought the urge to get back up and start pacing again. "Can't this damn plane go any faster?" I grumbled.

Dimitri grabbed my hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "We'll be there soon enough. You can see Lissa then."

~YT~

"What do you mean I can't see her?" I demanded.

"That's the rule. No one except her guardians can go in there." Christian was careful to keep Dimitri in between us as he shared this little gem of information.

"I'm her guardian."

"Not right now. You've been removed from duty."

"Well I'm back now. And I'm fine." Okay, yelling at Christian out in the hallway might not have been the best way to convince everybody that I was mentally sound and ready to resume my duties, but they really shouldn't have expected anything else from me.

I took a deep breath and lowered my voice. "She isn't going to compel me."

"She compelled the entire Court."

So I'd heard, and I really wanted to get in there and give her the biggest high five ever. Those stuck up royals no doubt had it coming. But that would hardly help my case. "Yeah, but this is me. Lissa won't compel me, and even if she tried, I'm practically immune to it."

Behind me, Dimitri muttered something that didn't sound entirely complimentary before laying a hand on my shoulder. "Roza, why don't we go get some sleep?"he suggested. "We'll be better able to deal with this once we're rested."

"Yeah, sleep, that's a great idea." I took a closer look at Dimitri and amended my sarcastic answer. "Actually, you do look a little rough. Let's go catch some shuteye."

He eyed me suspiciously at my easy agreement, but I could tell that he was too eager for bed to push me on it. The time change was starting to catch up to me as well. The difference was, I didn't care about anything, including how exhausted I was, until I saw Lissa.

Despite it being the middle of the night, there weren't too many people around as we made our way to our apartment. You could feel the tension crackling in the air. Even if people didn't know the full story behind Lissa's sequestration, they knew that something was up.

Dimitri barely took the time to shrug out of his leather duster and kick off his shoes before crawling into bed. I crawled in with him, cuddling up beside him until I felt his breath even out and the arm around me slacken. It was very tempting to just stay right there and drift off, but I forced myself to inch out from under his arm and sneak out the door. I was a guardian, and I had a job to do.

As eerie as it was to see the place almost deserted at this time of night, I was grateful for it as I made my way back to Lissa's building. I stood under her window and eyed the wall critically. This wasn't going to be easy, and I'd be in plain sight the whole time I spider-manned my way up there.

Once I made it to the second story, the textured stone gave me at least a chance of making it. The first story, unfortunately, had been worn down smooth. Running my hand over the completely unblemished surface, I knew that earth users had to be involved somehow. Nothing was overlooked when it came to keeping assassins out of the queen's rooms. Considering how Tatiana had met her fate, it still wasn't enough.

Starting with the obvious first step, I climbed up onto a window ledge. It was set deep into the wall, however, so there was no top sill for me to grab. Just beside the window, however, was a sign designating the various uses for the offices on the first floor. It was a bit of a stretch, but I easily swung over to it.

The rougher stone was now just a few feet over my head. I tried to pull myself up on arm strength alone, but it was still out of my reach. My feet scrambled against the wall, searching for any flaw in the stone that would give me a grip. No such luck. I wondered how long I could hang there before someone noticed me, even on a night as empty as this one.

"Rose? What are you doing? I didn't even know you were back!"

Damn. Apparently not very long. As Lissa's guardian, that made me happy. As Lissa's best friend trying to sneak in to see her, damn it. I twisted slightly to grin down at my audience. "Jill. Eddie. Hey. Mind giving me a boost?"

Jill smiled back as she shook her head at me. "You'll never change, will you?"

Eddie looked distinctly less amused. Fair enough, since I'd almost ruined his career. Nevertheless, he stepped up and gripped my legs, easily taking my weight off my arms. One in a million, this guy. "Do you even know what's going on?" he asked.

"Lissa's being held prisoner in her own room for trying to compel the Court after using an overwhelming amount of spirit to bring me back from being Strigoi," I summed up. Man I wish our lives could be something that looked even remotely like normal.

"I don't think so. Lissa's succeeded in compelling the Court after they tried to vote to make guardian service mandatory for all dhampirs ages 16 and up."

If Eddie hadn't been holding my legs, I probably would have fallen off the wall at that. "Are you kidding me? 16 and up? Up to what?"

Jill shrugged, any trace of a smile gone from her face. "Lissa stepped in at that point with Compulsion, so they've been a little distracted since then. But they're planning to vote again soon."

"I've got to get up there." I gave Eddie a little nudge with my toe. "How about that boost?"

He looked up the wall. "You really think you can climb that thing?"

"Of course." There was no trace of my usual playful cockiness in my answer. "Lissa's up there."

After exchanging a look with Jill, Eddie sighed and pushed me up.

As soon as I grabbed the stone, I knew that this was going to be even harder than I had expected. The wall wasn't just rough, it was jagged. Tiny juts poked out everywhere, biting into my skin. I gritted my teeth and pulled myself up. Lissa was just forty feet above me. I could do forty feet.

I jammed my toes into cracks and ledges, briefly considering kicking off my shoes. That would give me a better grip, true, but my hands were already bleeding. I'd keep the extra protection. I glanced down to see Eddie and Jill watching with worried looks.

"Get out of here," I hissed at them. "You might as well be pointing a giant sign at me."

It was obvious that neither of them liked it, but they both went. I returned my attention to my climb.

I made slow but steady progress. Judging by the moon, it didn't take me long, but it felt like I hung there for hours. My arms started to get tired, and a couple of times I slipped. Once, I thought I heard a stifled scream when I lunged for a hold and missed it. Wherever Jill and Eddie went, it must not be far.

Finally, though, I was just under Lissa's window. And right up against a problem that I should have anticipated. Her window stuck out a good two feet, giving her just enough of a balcony to step out onto. It curved gently enough that I might be able to climb it on a good day, but I'd just scaled a five story building. My arms were just about done, and all the tiny little cuts on my hands were making it hard to grip the stone.

Still, I'd never make it back down, so trying was my only choice. No way was I giving up this close to Lissa. With a renewed bust of determination, I propelled myself upward, just barely catching hold of a protruding stone. I pushed off the wall with my feet, using that momentum to swing the rest of the way up and grab the top of her balcony. Too late, I realized that put me in the exact same position I'd been in when Jill and Eddie found me.

My legs kicked the air as my arms started to tremble. Did I dare call out for help? The guardians posted with Lissa would hear and be all over me in a second. I'd never have a chance to actually talk to her. On the other hand, my only other choice seemed to be to hang here until I fell.

I was still searching for a third option when I shifted my grip slightly and my left hand slipped right off the balcony. My own weight jerked me down, and it was all I could do to keep my right hand in place. I sucked in a breath, ready to admit defeat and call for help when I felt a hand grab my wrist.

As my rescuer hauled me up, a gust of wind blew my hair into my face. I collapsed face first onto the floor, taking a second to be grateful I wasn't splattered on the ground. I knew that I had to have been discovered by a guardian. I'd been pulled up way too easily for it to have been Lissa. What I didn't expect was to roll over and stare into a face remarkably similar to my own.

"Hi, Mom."


	16. Chapter 16

ROSE

I didn't know what I expected from her. At this point, I had pretty much stopped expecting things from my mother, because I was always wrong. Normal mothers might hug their daughter after rescuing her from a forty foot drop. There'd probably also be some chastising in there over attempting such a foolhardy climb in the first place. It wouldn't surprise me if my mother dragged me off to the guardian offices for discipline right away.

Instead of doing any of those things, she simply sat back and watched me recover from my latest near death experience. "It's about time you got here."

Yup, my mother would never fail to surprise me. She had been more lax about the rules lately. I blamed Abe, but I wasn't going down that path right now. Most people might be thrilled to learn that their parents were getting back together. I preferred to pretend their relationship didn't exist.

Before I could question her about her attitude, I was hit by a tall, slender cannonball. And yeah, that makes no sense because cannonballs are round, but that's what it felt like when my best friend slammed into me.

"Rose!" Lissa wrapped me up in a hug so tight I wondered if this is what it felt like to be eaten by an anaconda. "I knew they couldn't keep you out."

"Of course they couldn't. You need me, I'm here. That's how this works." Unless my boyfriend has turned Strigoi and I have to go kill him. Or unless I just got restored from Strigoi and need to go wallow in my own guilt for a while. I was thankful when she didn't bring up either of those exceptions.

"Rose," Lissa's voice trembled as her joy over seeing me faded into reality. "The Council thinks I'm insane."

"Well, you are." She jerked back, but I kept her from going far. "You've been my best friend for almost twenty years, Liss. The only way to explain that is if you're completely certifiable."

She let out a watery chuckle at that. "Well it's caught up to me now. They're going to send me to Tarasov."

"Like hell they are." I stated it calmly and smiled as Lissa relaxed. Yeah, we were back. Lissa was in trouble and I was going to do whatever it took to get her out of it. And I did mean whatever it took.

A knock on the door interrupted us. "Lissa, let me in!" Christian called.

She hurried over to the door. The minute Christian Ozera stepped in, his electric blue eyes locked one me. "Figured you'd be in here. We've got trouble."

"What kind of trouble?" My hand dropped to my stake. It was highly unlikely that there were Strigoi at Court, but pretty much anything I stabbed through the heart woul die.

"The Council is voting on the dhampir policy again. Right now."

All three of us swore vehemently. "They were supposed to vote on me first," Lissa muttered.

"But everyone loves you." I suddenly saw what was going on. "If they vote you out, they'll have to explain that to everyone. If they pass the new dhampir laws while you're still queen, you'll lose a lot of your support. While everyone is distracted by the new laws, they can quietly shuffle you out of the way."

"We're not going to let them, though." Judging by the look on Christian's face, he was ready to start lighting things on fire. And he had the nerve to call my psychotic. Not that I minded. Between the two of us, I was confident that we could get Lissa out of this one way or another. Hell, I'd pour the gasoline before he lit the spark if that's what it took. But I was hoping to avoid that.

"We're fighting two different wars here," I said. "Keeping Lissa on the throne and preventing the dhampir ruling. I don't know if we can do one without the other. So the first thing we need is to get Lissa reinstated."

"As a matter of fact, you don't." I whipped around at that Russian accent, coming face to face with Dimitri.

"Hi," I said lamely. "You're up."

"Yes, well, since sleeping apparently wasn't on the agenda, I decided to go find a way to entertain myself. It wasn't quite as exciting as scaling a five story building, but we can't all be you, Rose."

I should have known that it wasn't that easy to sneak away from Dimitri, even if he was jet lagged and exhausted. I tried to judge how angry he was. His face was all serious guardian mode, but his eyes were smiling at me. I guess he'd expected something like this. He'd known what he was getting when he choose me. Which probably meant he should have his own cell in Tarasov's mental ward.

"We don't need to get Lissa reinstated because she's never been uninstated, as it were. I double checked with your father."

That jolted me away from gazing into Dimitri's eyes and I realized that Abe was standing at his shoulder. "Hey, old man. Come to break the law again?"

"I'm upholding it this time. Your...fiance prompted me to look into some of the old law books. The king or queen can be removed from the throne if the Council finds sufficient reason to declare them unfit for duty. It requires a unanimous vote. Until that vote takes place, Lissa retains all of her queenly authority. There is no in between. She's either queen, or she isn't."

He made a little bow towards Lissa and then turned back to me. "Speaking of your fiance-"

"Zmey, we're a little busy right now. Wedding plans later." My father was not pleased that I was living with Dimitri. Which was a little hypocritical of him, considering my existence, but whatever. Not important now.

"So they can't keep me out of the Council meetings until they officially vote me off the throne!" Lissa adopted her best "I'm royalty" pose and started for the door.

"Woah, woah, woah!" I leaped in front of her. "Easy there, cupcake. You're not just going to stroll in there looking like that." I gestured to her old jeans and Leheigh sweatshirt.

"I am the queen no matter what I wear," she announced regally.

"Well, yeah, but if you're going to be the queen, then you have to _be_ the queen." I looked around for some backup.

"She's right, Vasalisa," my mother said. "You have to walk into that throne room and command the attention and respect of everyone inside. And for that, you have to look more like a queen."

"I've waited for her to get ready for a Court session," Christian protested, "it takes forever. We don't have that kind of time. They are getting ready to vote right now."

"Then someone has to go stall them," I told him. Everyone turned to look at me. Great. Looking for someone to make a spectacle of herself so that her best friend has time to curl her hair before saving the day? Rose Hathaway is your girl. Sometimes I really hated my life.

"Fine, I'll do it. But the guardians aren't just going to let me stroll in there."

"You might be surprised," Dimitri said. "Everyone at Court knows what's going on. How do you think Abe and I got in here?"

I hadn't really thought about it. Guardian support made my job easier, but it also made what we were doing much more important. If we didn't prevent this ruling from going through, things were going to get ugly around here fast. If the Moroi and the dhampirs turned against each other, the Strigoi would kill us all in days. No pressure.

I grabbed my mom's wrist. "You're coming with me."

"I am?" There was a challenging note in her voice. Huh, I always thought I got my authority problems from Abe. Apparently the great Janine Hathaway didn't like being told what to do either. I was doomed from the start.

"I'm the loose cannon, you're the perfect guardian. If the two of us stand up together on an issue, we pretty much represent the entirety of the guardian population."

"I've been watching over Vasalisa in your absence," she informed me stiffly. "My place is with her."

"And I appreciate it, really. But Dimitri's got this." I looked over at him and he nodded. Yeah, he understood. If this went south, he'd get Lissa out of here. There weren't many people I'd trust with that responsibility.

"Very well." She gestured to the door dramatically. "Let's go disrupt the most important Council meeting of our lifetime."

My father and I shared an amused look. We really were a bad influence on her. I grinned at Lissa. "See you in a bit, Your Highness." Squaring my shoulders, I marched to the door. I had a disturbance to cause.


	17. Chapter 17

ROSE

When I strode out of Lissa's room, the guardians posted on her door didn't even blink. I wondered what I would have to do to actually shock people around here. Obviously, they weren't putting anything past me.

"Are you going to stop them Rose?" Mike asked me.

Looking at him closely, I could see how worried he was. Jake and Diane had similar expressions on their faces. The Council had no idea what was going to happen if they went through with this.

"Nah, I'm just going to stall them," I answered. "She's going to stop them." I jerked my head back toward Lissa's room.

Diane furrowed her brow. "She's unwell."

"She's the queen," I said firmly. "And if disagreeing with the Council for trying to turn dhampirs into their slaves makes her unwell, I'm not feeling so good myself."

Diane flinched. "No, I just meant...Rose, I don't agree with what the Council is doing, of course, but Compulsion? It's banned for a reason. You can't deny that what Vasalisa did was troubling."

I don't know what I'd call it, but somehow troubling didn't cover it. But, like always, I had bigger problems. "I'd call what the Council is doing more troubling."

My mother grabbed my elbow, reminding me that we didn't have time to stand around here debating everything that was wrong with the world. With a quick nod to Mike and Jake, we took off down the hallway.

People turned to follow us as we passed. There were guardians outside the Council room. A lot of guardians. I realized every off duty dhampir in the Court must have gathered here to find out the verdict as soon as it was given. I started to elbow my way through.

"Make a path!" my mother called.

Like magic, one opened up in front of us. People reached out to pat our backs, wishing us luck. The guardians stationed at the door kept their eyes perfectly straight, refusing to see us as we cracked the door open and slipped inside.

The Council room was packed. They must have just restored order after a large outburst, because everyone was glaring at everyone else. Mia was actually standing on her chair, red in the face from shouting. Go, Mia.

Adrian's father was serving as MC. "We appreciate your concern in this matter," he called out in his powerful voice. "We recognize the importance of the issue at hand and the Council is committed to doing what is in everyone's best interest. Now it is time for us to vote. We have heard your arguments-"

"You haven't heard mine!" Every head in the room swiveled to face me. I saw the looks. _Oh great, another Rosemarie Hathaway debacle_. I didn't care. If my reputation could help stall things here until Lissa arrived, I'd dredge up every embarrassing moment I'd ever had and share it with all of them.

"Guardian Hathaway, I appreciate that this has been a tough time for your daughter, but she cannot interrupt these proceedings on her own whims. Please remove her from the room."

It took a moment for me to register the insult. He wasn't recognizing my guardian status. He was asking my mother to take me out like I was an unruly child who started crying at an inopportune moment. Before I could reply, my mother was speaking up.

"I'm sorry, but I must refuse, Lord Ivashkov. You see, it wasn't my daughter's whim that brought her here. We asked her to come speak on our behalf."

We? I turned slightly to see what she meant and almost gasped. Most of the dhampirs from the hallway had followed us in, packing the doorway and flooding out of the room. As far as a show of support went, it made its point and them some. Right now, I spoke for all dhampirs.

Swallowing nervously, I turned back to face the Council. "Most of us standing before you now are going to die, violently and prematurely. We know that. We know that we take that risk every time we follow one of our charges out into the world. There are times we face that risk standing right here in this room."

I didn't know if I was on the right track or not, but everyone was listening, so I kept talking. "You don't owe us for that service, because we volunteered for it of our own free will. But there are dhampirs around the world who haven't. Who want to be left alone to live their lives in peace. What we do here is for them, just as much as it is for you. We fight so that they don't have to. We fight so that sixteen year old children don't have to. We fight to be free. And you have no right to take that freedom away from us."

As far as speeches go, I thought it was a good one, but I could tell that the Council wasn't impressed. I hadn't gotten through to them. I had failed. "Thank you for your words, Miss Hathaway-"

"Guardian Hathaway," I interrupted him. I'd tried doing this the proper way. Now I was going to do it my way. "I'm a guardian, and I'll show you the proof right now." I leapt onto a chair and pulled my shirt up.

Shocked gasps ran through the room. So I could still surprise people. All it took was me flashing the Council. Someone let out a wolf whistle. That would be Adrian. It encouraged me to know that Sydney hadn't completely civilized him, giving me the push I needed to continue on.

"Do you see this?" I gestured to the top of my left breast, rising out of my bra. The scar had faded some, but there was still no missing the raised pink skin left from my bullet wound. "This is my badge of service. It's proof of my pledge. You see it as a sign that I protected Vasalisa Dragomir, last of her line, but I didn't dive in front of Princess Dragomir to take a bullet for her. I did it for Lissa, my best friend.

"I would go to hell and back for her. Whether she's queen of the Moroi or an outcast from society, I am her guardian. That's the type of loyalty you need to win this war against the Strigoi. And you can't compel that loyalty out of us with threats and rulings. You earn it. Lissa has earned mine time and time again throughout the years. You haven't. Now is the time to see if you ever will. So go ahead. Vote."

After a long, uncomfortable silence, Prince Badica stood up. "We will not be told how to rule by an lawless dhampir who has been a thorn in our side her entire life. This outrage is proof that we have been too lenient for too long. I vote in favor of mandatory service."

"All in favor, stand with Prince Badica," Adrian's father ordered.

The room was dead silent as Council members climbed to their feet. House Conta, Dashkov, Drozdov, Tarus, and Lazar cast their vote for the ruling.

"And those against."

The six Council members took their seat while the remaining five stood. The crowd stood frozen. We had lost the vote. One wrong move now could send the whole room up like a powder keg. Princess Szelsky met my eyes over the crowd, defeat and panic in hers.

I couldn't think of anything to do to make this better. And then I heard the one person who could.

"House Dragomir has yet to cast their vote."


	18. Chapter 18

LISSA

I concentrated on breathing evenly as the whole room turned to face me. I knew from the hush that fell across the crowd that I'd made the impression Rose and Janine had expected of me. I'd hate to ruin it now by hyperventilating.

As one, the large gathering of dhampirs went down on one knee. It was more than the required show of subservience to the queen. It was a message to the Council. Their loyalty lay with me. I only hoped that I would prove worthy of it.

The Moroi in the room followed suit, more slowly. I was left the only Moroi standing, with my guardian detachment remaining upright and alert around me. And Rose, standing on a chair with her shirt hiked up over her breasts. Dimitri, standing at my shoulder, made a strangled sound deep in his throat. Rose flushed a furious red and quickly smoothed her shirt back down over her chest.

I tried to remember if I had ever seen Rose blush before. The thought of my brash, shameless best friend actually being embarrassed broke the tension that was holding me in place. I glided smoothly across the room, aware of every eye on me but no longer smothered by the weight.

Rose hopped down off her chair and fell into step behind me as I ascended the dais and took my place among the Council. "You may rise," I finally announced to the crowd.

Once everyone was once again on their feet and staring at me expectantly, I almost choked again, but if Rose could strip in front of the Council I could do my queenly duty. Even if I did feel like I was the half naked one.

"There is much that could be said about what has happened here today." I hoped my voice came out regal and full. I could barely hear it over the ringing in my ears. Would I ever get used to this queen thing? "I have had a great deal of time to think in recent days. Compulsion is indeed wrong, whether magical or not, and has been outlawed for good reason."

I paused, waiting to see if anyone would bring up the fact that they had tried to banish me from this room. No one spoke. Rose was right; they couldn't attack me while I had so much support. "And yet, here is the Council, our governing body responsible for upholding our laws, trying to compel children and innocents to fight a war that they are unwilling to face."

Prince Drozdov started to his feet, but I held up my hand to stall him. "Or I could point out that we do owe a great debt to our guardians, whether they will acknowledge it or not. They ask so very little of us, these men and women who risk their lives so that both our races can continue on in safety and peace. I do not find this request to be unreasonable.

"I think I have already tried to remind you that what our people need now is a show of strength from those they look to for leadership. They need rulers they can admire. Pillars of safety that can stand against the threat of the Strigoi and offer security to those who follow them. What they got instead was this, a pitiful display of men and women who have been given every advantage in life and are still more worried about saving their own skin than caring for those placed under their authority."

I ran my gaze down the Council, trying to soften my glare as I passed over those who voted against this insane ruling. I hoped they knew that my next words weren't directed to them, but to their counterparts who had tried to push these laws through. "All of that and more could be said, but I don't think there is any point in wasting more words on arguments that have already been made. So instead, all I will say is, I'm very disappointed in my Council today. And I do not think that I am the only one."

I made a lifting gesture with my hands. "Rise now, if you wish to show your true worth to those gathered here today. Stand with me to show our appreciation for our guardians, and our commitment to fighting our own battles without hiding behind those we have sworn to protect."

The princes and princesses from House Szelsky, Ozera, Ivashkov, Voda, and Zeklos instantly got to their feet. Those who had originally voted for the law fidgeted uneasily. Princess Conta looked on the verge of standing, but harsh glares from Prince Badica and Prince Drozdov kept her in her seat. Apparently these six had made an agreement, and no one was willing to break it.

I knew we'd won, but I still felt defeated as I turned to Adrian's father and gave him a little nod. A unanimous vote was almost impossible to get, but even just one more person standing would have been better than a tie.

"The vote stands at six houses for mandatory guardian service from dhampirs and six against. As is precedent for such cases, the queen's vote shall break the tie. Therefore, the Council has decided that guardian shall remain optional for all dhampirs," Nathan Ivashkov announced.

Cheers erupted from the gathered guardians. Many Moroi celebrated with them. Others grumbled and shot them dark looks. I decided to focus on the celebration for had held them off by the skin of our teeth, but we had held them off.

Rose reached forward and grabbed my hand. I returned her squeeze, turning just enough to catch her eye. We shared tight smiles, but I'm pretty sure the worry on her face was reflected on mine. Yeah, we had won today. But our problems were just beginning.


	19. Epilogue

ROSE

"They weren't listening to me. I had to do something to get their attention."

Dimitri didn't respond. He hadn't said much of anything since walking into the Council chambers behind Lissa. I could understand, kind of. I wouldn't really be happy if I walked in on him stripping for an entire room full of people. But it wasn't like I was collecting singles or anything. I was serving the greater good.

"I'm sorry." When all else fails, I had learned, suck it up and apologize. "Please don't be mad at me."

"Rose." He finally took my hands and gave them a squeeze. "I am not angry."

"You're not?" I asked, relieved.

"Of course not. You weren't doing anything wrong. You were just doing what you had to in order to give Lissa a chance to make things right." He gave me a wry smile. "I have learned that there is nothing you will not do to fulfill your duties. I might wish you would be more careful sometimes, but I wouldn't change one thing about you, Rose."

Awwwww. He was so sweet sometimes. "You've been so quiet, I was worried you were upset."

"I am a little upset, but not with you. I was frustrated with myself. I was very...distracted, at a time when I needed to be on my guard."

I knew that distracting him from his duties was what had almost kept us apart, back at the beginning of our relationship, but I couldn't help but feel a little smug that I could break Dimitri's legendary focus. "Distracted, huh? Is that all it takes?"

"Finding you like that was...unexpected. I will be better prepared next time."

"And what makes you think there will be a next time?" I asked.

He shrugged. "It got the results you wanted. Why shouldn't you try it again?"

I drew back a little and frowned at him. "And that wouldn't bother you?"

"They are your breasts, Rose. If you want to show them to people, I can't stop you."

He didn't look bothered, but I wanted to make sure that we were on the same page. "Well, maybe, if I ever find myself needing to distract half the population at Court again. And I guess it doesn't hurt anything to let other people look. But only you get to touch."

He pulled me back in. "I thought that went without saying," he said before he kissed me.

I put my arms around his neck and kissed him back. Lissa and I were back in rhythm, the dhampirs were safe, and I was kissing Dimitri. Did my life get any better?

"Can you two get a room?"

There he was, the bane of my existence. "Not until our replacements arrive," I told Christian. "We're on duty."

"Yes, I feel very safe with you making out in the corner," he sneered. "I'm sure if any discontented Moroi burst in here, that'll stop them."

"Will the two of you stop bickering for once in your life?" Lissa snapped.

Christian and I exchanged looks. Lissa had pretty much accepted the fact that Christian and I would never be able to spend more than five minutes together without sniping at each other. For her to snap at us over it, she must really be on edge.

"Come on, Liss," I told her. "Relax."

"Relax? How on earth am I supposed to relax?"

Christian crossed over to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "You were magnificent today," he said. "You stopped the vote."

"I stopped the vote today, but the Council isn't going to let this drop that easily. And they're right about one thing: we can't keep on like we have been. The Strigoi are growing too powerful. The Master, who is still out there somewhere, is proof enough of that." Lissa's voice got higher as she worked herself into a full blown rant. "We haven't made any progress on a vaccine, Spirit is driving me crazy, assassins could bust down my door any second-"

"Enough!" I cut her off. "First of all, no assassins are getting anywhere near you while I'm around, okay? Second, we're going to find a way to beat Spirit before you lose control. And third, the vaccine may have been a bust, but Sydney has enough of my blood to go into serious tattoo production, which will protect a lot of people from the Strigoi.

"You're right," I admitted, "we're up against a lot. The Master is out there somewhere and it's only a matter of time until he pops up again. But we can deal with him. We've beat him twice, we can do it again. We'll deal with him, and the Council, and anyone who tries to give us trouble. And we'll do it together. Are we clear? You don't have to do any of this alone."

She gave me a tired smile. "I know. I'm just so tired, Rose." She leaned into me, resting her head on my shoulder. "I'm tired of feeling like I have to save everyone."

"You saved us all today. So go ahead and take a break. You don't always have to be the hero. Give someone else a turn."

There was a light knock on the door and then Nathan poked his head in. "I'm on watch," he said. "You're off, Hathaway."

"I can stay," I told Lissa.

"No, you and Dimitri go get some sleep. You haven't slept since flying home. I'll be fine."

I could feel fatigue starting to creep up on me. The excitement of all that had happened in the past few hours had kept it at bay, but that wouldn't last much longer. I grabbed Dimitri's hand. "Come on, Comrade, let's go find that room."

Christian made a gagging noise, but Dimitri and I both ignored him. We made our way over to our apartment without speaking much. By the time we made it into our bedroom, it was all I could do to put one foot in front of the other. I stripped down and fell into bed seconds before Dimitri landed beside me.

"Stay put this time," he ordered.

"Okay." I snuggled up against him and couldn't stop the grin from spreading across my face.

"What are you so happy about?" he asked me curiously.

I really didn't have any reason to be feeling so good. We had enemies coming at us from all directions. On the other hand, that's what our lives had always been like. And I was where I belonged, standing between Lissa and the rest of the world with Dimitri at my side.

I tried to figure out how to put that feeling into words, but then a soft snore let me know that Dimitri was alseep. I pulled his arm a little tighter around me and drifted off with him.

 **Hey guys, thanks for reading! I've got one more story planned for the Master, so be on watch for Your Turn part 3. Cheers!**


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